The 70th Hunger Games
by SapphireShelle91
Summary: Annie Cresta is seventeen years old and has no wish to be District's Four next girl tribute. She had two more years before she would have been safe from entering the Games, but the Capital has other ideas for her. The 70th Hunger Games, Ladies and Gentleman. May the odds be ever in your favour!
1. Chapter One

**The 70th Hunger Games**

_Part One_

_The Tributes_

_**Part One's Summary:** Annie Cresta is seventeen years old and has no wish to be District's Four next girl tribute. She had two more years before she would have been safe from entering the Games, but the Capital has other ideas for her._

_Now she is the female tribute of District Four for the 70th Hunger Games and she can't think how things can possibly get worse. She thought that her worse problem would be her inability to fight, but she is about to discover that things are far more complicated and dangerous than she ever originally thought._

_She is about to discover just how much control the Capital has over the Districts Victors and how dangerous President Snow really is. Especially since he's taken a special interest in her. If Annie thought the Hunger Games would be the death of her, she might just discover that her life is in danger before she's even entered the Arena._

**Author's Note:** Greeting All. This is my first ever Hunger Games Fanfic, so please be kind.  
This fanfic is obviously about Annie's Games, it is from her point of view. Like Hunger Games this fic will be broken up into three parts; this is obviously Part One: Tributes and is aboutour Twelve chapters long. I know this type of fic, Annie's Games, has been done a number of times, but hopefully mine will be quite different from all the others that are out there. That's the plan for this fic, anyway.  
Anyway, enough of my chatter, please enjoy my story and let me know what you think. If you have any ideas I would love to hear your thoughts.  
**Disclaimer:** Obviously I am not Suzanne Collins. If I was Finnick would not be dead and Peeta would not have been put through hell and back, but still I love her books and I'm simply borrowing some of her characters and themes from her books, but otherwise I am not her, so don't sue me.

* * *

**Chapter One**

I wake with a start, though I don't know what exactly has startled me out of sleep. The sun wasn't even up yet and only a few sea birds were starting to call to one another, welcoming the coming morning.

I could hear the ocean, her waves gently crashing into the shore of District Four, splashing around the docks and boats anchored in the bay. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening to wake me from my sleep, and it had been such a good sleep too.

I try to move, stretch me limbs only to find that I can't, that I'm trapped beneath a weight - a comfortable, warm weight mind you - and that I am mere millimetres from falling off the bed.

Instead of panicky from this trapped feeling, I simply wiggled within the arms that have encased me so protectively to his chest, so that I am now facing him.

I frown when I look up into his face. He is grimacing as if he is suffering; pain, grief, guilt. All these feelings he suffers though he tries to hide them from the rest of the world with his fast smile and quick mouth.

I reach up and gently touch his face, with the vain hope that I might be able to simply swipe the grimace and all the pain that comes with it away from him, out of him.

His arms tighten around me in response and I can't help but wince a little from the strength that he is now using to hold me against him. His dreams must be bad this morning.

I keep running my fingers over his face, gently saying his name over and over again, like a mantra.

"Finnick, it's ok. It's just a dream. You're not really back there. It's just a dream, Finn." I watched his face twitch as my voice starts to break threw his dream, nightmare rather, pulling him back, back to the present, back to me.

"Annie?" he whispered as his brilliant sea green eyes start to blink awake.

"Uh huh, I'm here." I whisper and his arms loosen some from their death grip around me. I know that I'll probably have a bruise or two from him, but the relief that is now written all over his face makes the pain worthwhile.

He closes his eyes again, burying his face into my neck, pressing warm kisses against my collarbone.

"Finnick." I giggled once more trying to squirm away from him, "that tickles."

He lifts himself on to his elbows, looking down at me seriously, before suddenly rolling me completely under him. It's now that I remember just how completely undressed we both are, with me only in an old, over-sized button up shirt and him with absolutely nothing on at all.

I'm taken aback by how serious he still looks. How much pain and grief, as well as guilt of a survivor and killer who never wished to kill and only did so, so that he could live, is still written all over his face.

"Finnick?" I whisper as I once again press my fingers to his face, running them down his jaw line and against his lips. He kissed each of my fingers as they trailed against his mouth, but the pain and seriousness remained.

Why? Why was he…

Ah.

Reaping Day. Today is Reaping Day.

I feel my stomach plummet a little as I remember this little detail about today.

I kiss him and he kisses me back and after only a few moments our bodies are moving in their familiar rhythm with each other when Finnick's house phone rang.

"Ignore it." Finnick growled into my neck.

I tried.

I really did, but the rings were persisted, so with a heavy sigh, I shoved him off me and started to roll out of bed before remembering that this wasn't in fact my house, so my answering Finnick's phone would not be the wisest of ideas, especially this early in the morning.

I stood in the middle of his room, trying to straighten the shirt that I was wearing as a nightgown, his shirt, listening to the persisted rings of his phone, while he simply remained in bed, looking gorgeous and all things that really should be made illegal.

"Ignore it." Finnick said again, beckoning for me to come back to bed.

I hesitated still, looking out the window at the lightening sky as dawn started to approach. I would have to leave soon, so as to not arise questions or suspicion from anyone about my relationship with the famous Finnick Odair.

The whole district knows that we're friends, best friends in fact, even though some do find it strange that the famous, gorgeous Finnick Odair spends all of his time with a skinny girl, two years his junior with nothing exceptionally special about her except for having a grandmother who was a Victor and has won several medals for swimming at school. But besides from that, I'm particularly unique from any of the other girls in the district, most of whom glare daggers at me for simply being friends with Finnick.

I can only image what they'd do if they knew that I slept with him. Or that he actually loved me with all his heart.

I felt myself blush darkly at the thought, not noticing that he had risen from bed, startling me out of my thoughts when his arms wrapped themselves around my waist and he kissed my neck with open mouth kisses that make my knees go weak.

"Finnick."

"See, it's stopped. Now come back to bed." He whispers. Not in the seductive tone that he uses in the Capital when he's forced to "entertain" ladies (and men), but the tone that he only uses when he is around me, and only me, and only when he knows that we are completely alone, away from the prying ears of the Capital.

If President Snow ever found out about me, or rather that our relationship was anything more than platonic, I can only dread to think what he would do to Finnick.

He has just swung me into his arms, causing me to squeal softly, just about to dump me on to the bed when…

"FINNICK ODAIR!" I am dumped on to his bed with a lot less grace than I would have been if not for the yelling voice of my grandmother.

I watched in amusement from the bed as Finnick started to panic, before sticking his head out the open window of his room – he always leaves it open, he feels suffocated and trapped if its closed – and called down, to where I suspect my grandmother is standing, right beneath his window.

Oh… I felt my cheeks grow warm.

"Morning Mags." I heard Finnick call down to her.

"Finnick what is it with you and answering your phone?" my grandmother called back up to him, surprisingly loud for a seventy-five year old woman, though not loudly enough to wake the whole Victor's Village, thank god!

"It's not even dawn yet." He whined back at her, sounding more like a fourteen year old than he's soon to be twenty years.

"But clearly you are wide awake and up to no good." Came my grandmother's sharp reply and I could see his ears and cheeks turn a reddish tone under his naturally bronze skin in the dim light of coming dawn.

"Ah."

"Get yourselves dressed, I'm coming in." I winced, knowing that she knew that I was here. Not that it was a hard guess as to where I might be if I'm not at home, but still, it's embarrassing to know that your grandmother knows exactly what you've been up to during the night.

Finnick groaned as he pulled his head back into the room, us both hearing my grandmother open his front door with the key that he had given her a few years back, as a gift when he moved back here when he was sixteen, after he brought his family a large boat to live on.

Finnick isn't close to his family. Not anymore.

"We should probably go down, unless you want her to come up and find us like this." I say as I start pulling on my underwear and my pants. The shirt I was wearing was decent enough, so I simply left it on. I would have to change anyway for the Reaping, so I didn't see the point of getting completely dressed now.

Finnick grumbled something along the lines of "like she hasn't found me in worse situations."

"Not with me, she hasn't." I replied as I threw some clothes at him.

"Oh, but like she doesn't know." He smirks that cocky smirk that I'm sure is the cause for all the girls and women (and men) here and in the Capital and all over Panem to swoon over him.

I return his cocky smile with a very dead-pan expression, causing him to pout ever so slightly.

"Why does that never work?" he asks as he pulls on the clothes that I threw at him.

"What, your charm?" I asked as I started running a brush threw my hair.

"Yup."

"Maybe it isn't as impressive as everyone has led you to believe," his pout deepens, "or maybe," I added as I walk over to him and stood on my tippy toes to kiss his month gently, "you need at least one person to not fall for them and that person is the person that truly loves you, the good and the bad, they don't need to be charmed to love you, they just do."

"Well, when you put it like that…" he said starting to smile, pulling me to his chest and leading down to kiss me properly, but I pull away with a wicked grin before bouncing out of his room.

"You little…" I hear him swear after me, causing me to laugh as I near run down the stairs, down to the kitchen where my grandmother was making herself a cup of tea.

She looked up at me with tired eyes and a gentle smile and I immediately felt my own smile slip, as guilt start to gnaw at my insides.

"Bad night?" I asked, moving to her side, wrapping my arm around her waist as I walked her to one of Finnick's mismatched kitchen chairs. I don't know how or when they became so mismatched, each chair being different to the next, but Finnick likes it this way. Actually most of the things in his house don't match with each other.

"Hmmm, it was and I panicked when I didn't find you in your room." Grandma said softly as she gently touched my face with her hand.

"I'm sorry." I whisper, placing my hand over hers.

She shook her head with a shaky laugh.

"It was silly of me to overreact like I did, but when I couldn't get through to Finnick via the phone; I guess I lost my mind for a moment there."

"It's fine. I know that today isn't a good day for you, any of you." I soothed, "we should have all stayed at yours, then you would not have had to have worried about us." She smiles at me warmly.

"You are such a sweet girl Annie. Such a sweet girl. Finnick is very lucky to have you."

"That I am." I jumped while my grandmother simply looked over my head and smiled as Finnick strolled into the kitchen, heading straight for the coffee. The man is addicted to his coffee.

"Morning Mags," he greeted my grandmother once he had poured himself a cup of the strong smelling brew.

I wrinkled my noise at the smell. He knows that I won't allow him to kiss me again until he's brushed his teeth clean of the wicked stuff. He grins when he's sees my expression.

"Morning to you too, Finnick." Grandma said with an amused expression as she watched Finnick and I pull faces at one another.

Their eyes meet and I can see the pain and understanding pass between. As close as I am to these two wonderful, fragile, broken creatures, I still don't understand them, not in the way that they understand each other.

In moments like these, I feel like I'm intruding in on something private, something so intimate and heartbreaking, that I want to cry. Not because I want to be a part of it, oh no, but because in these moments I remember and see just how broken these two people are and it breaks my heart.

So I let them have their moment, their silence to remember the grief, the fear, to remember all the horror that they have been put through. I let them remember it together, while I go about making our breakfast.

There isn't much to be have, not after the last storm made it near impossible for the boats to go out into the ocean to fish, and even with the preserves that we have, food is still scarce, even for us, here in Victor's Village. But I ignore that, just like I know every other family in the district will be when they wake, they'll all be making themselves a decent breakfast this morning, instead of eating simply gruel which fills the belly but is disgusting.

I've just finished cooking up some eggs and bread and am just moving on to cook some fish before the two come back to me from their moments of remembering.

"Hey, smells good." Finnick's voice is cheerful and is overly delighted in the fact that I'm not serving up gruel for once.

I started grin over my shoulder at him when I felt a sudden wave of nausea hit me in the gut causing me to immediately stop what I'm doing and bolt down the hall for the downstairs bathroom, with Grandma and Finnick calling after me in surprise.

I empty the contents of my gut down the toilet, flushed it, before sliding to the bathroom floor miserably.

"Annie?" Grandma walks into the bathroom, coming to crouch down beside me, her hand gently placing itself against my forehead.

"I don't know." I say simply, wiping a hand against my mouth. "I just felt sick all of a sudden."

I notice a strange, almost unreadable look cross my grandmother's face, but before I could ask her about it, Finnick's head was sticky itself in threw the bathroom doorway, his expression worried, though he did look relieved when he saw I wasn't being sick.

"I'm ok." I reassured them both, though they didn't look convinced. "It was probably just nerves." I added and this seems to sit with them better, though neither of them look happy.

But then, they're never happy about Reaping Day, and why should they be? Two children going off to their death.

Yes, as a Career's district as we as are so charmingly called, but then I can't really fault the other districts for begrudging us some, we do have a better chance of survival than most other districts, for example District Twelve. Going on seventy years that the Hunger Games have been held and District Twelve has only two Victors to boast.

One who died before I was born and the other, Haymitch, well, in some ways, he might as well be dead, for all the good he has done for his tributes, who usually die in the first couple of days in the arena.

I know that they're worried about me. I'm seventeen years old; I have this year and next before I am completely safe from becoming a tribute for our district.

"I'm fine now. Really. It was just nerves." I said as I pulled myself to my feet before helping Finnick do the same with my grandmother. They both looked sceptical, but didn't push me any further which I was grateful for.

"Breakfast is probably getting cold." I reminded them and just as I said that, Finnick's stomach grumbled.

I grinned as his cheeks turned red underneath his bronze skin and he ran a sheepish hand through his messy bronze coloured hair.

We all headed back for the kitchen, my fingers entwined with Finnicks's as we walked back. I could feel my grandmother's eyes on my back, but when I looked back at her, she simply smiled warmly back at me, but I could see the worry in her eyes, but as much as I wanted to ask what was wrong, I knew that today was simply a bad day, and at times it was best to simply leave Victors with their own thoughts.

Breakfast was cold, but I heated it all back up again easily and we had a good meal as the sun rose over the District Four, shining a warm welcome for Reaping Day.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yes, yes I've put Finnick and Annie together already and I've made Mags Annie's Grandmother. Why? To put it simply, I just did because I felt like it. I like Mags and I wanted to write her as being a main character, so in this she is Annie's grandmother. And she's not the only thing that I've added or changed from the original books, but you'll read about all that later on.  
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter. I'll try to update again soon, but I've got exams this week which I have to study for, so while I'll be editing Chapter 2 & 3 shortly and finishing this part of the fic tonight, my next update might not be until Friday, but that just depends on how I'm feeling and how many reviews this first chapter recieves.


	2. Chapter Two

**Author's Note:** Yes, I know I said wouldn't update until near the end of the week, but I have prac networking exam on this morning and I needed to do something to calm myself down and this seemed like the thing to do.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter, reviews are much loved and wish me luck for this exam.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

The morning went by too fast. Even waking up early didn't make the time seem slower for us to go down to the main square of District Four, outside the Justice Building, for the Reaping.

One moment I was enjoying breakfast with my Grandmother and my boyfriend/best friend and the next I was walking with them back to Grandma's house and getting ready to go down to the square.

I swallowed the lump that was building in my throat as I ran my hands over the soft green and blue dress that I had been given to wear by Grandma. It had belonged to my now deceased mother and even though it is years old, it is still one of the most beautiful things that I have ever worn. Simple but completely beautiful.

I slipped my feet into a pair of soft sandals, before I started fingering my hair, not sure what I should do with it. Most years, I simply threw it up into a high tail at the top of my head, like what I wear every other day of the year, as if to convince myself that today is like any other day of the year, even though, of course it isn't

"Hey. You ready?" Finnick's head was sticking itself into my bedroom from my doorway. He was looking quite dashing, but really, that is not unusual for him, since he almost always looks dashing, no matter what he wears. Or not wearing…

He whistled as he walked into my room, looking me up and down with an almost unreadable expression on his face, but I felt my cheeks blush when I saw just how dark his eyes now were. But instead of allowing him to see just how deeply he has affected me with simply his presence, I sniff at him, turning my back to him as I picked up my brush and started brushing it through my hair.

"Haven't you heard of the concept of knocking?" I asked him briskly, "I could have been changing for all you knew."

"More luck for me then, if you had been." He replied as he took my brush from me, since I had been brushing my hair somewhat fiercely, and started brushing it, gently, himself. He then positioned me in front of my bedroom's mirror and with clever fingers that I knew he possessed; he started braiding my hair down my back.

Once he had done that he started to create a complicated knot with the braid, so in the end my hair was knotted in a graceful knot at the back of my throat.

"A smile wouldn't hurt the image, you know." He teased softly and I smiled, just for him.

He cleared his throat then, and I saw him, in the mirror, from where he stood behind me, reaching into his trousers pocket nervously.

"I got this for you," he started, sounding so shy and childlike that I felt my smile grow as he gently wrapped his arms around my waist, one hand closed into a fist while his other hand took a hold of my right hand as he pressed his closed fist against it, dropping something cool and light into my palm.

I looked down with interest and couldn't help but gasp, for in my palm lay the most beautiful necklace that I had ever seen.

It was a tiny silver seashell hanging from a thin silver chain. So beautifully crafted it was that it took my breath away. And the cost of it…

"Finnick…" I started weakly, looking up into his eyes via the mirror. He was watching me carefully and seemed pleased with my reaction to his gift.

"You like?" he asked with a wide grin.

"Of course." I gasped, "But-but Finnick, I…"

"Shush." He said, moving one hand to gently place over my mouth – I kissed his palm. "Don't worry about any of that."

I roll my eyes at him in distress. How could I not? How could I not worry about this, when I know that this simple gift could be reported back to the Capital, back to President Snow and…

"It's fine, Annie." He soothed. "I'll be fine. It's just a gift" it was more than that, of course. "It's not like it's a ring or anything." He adds almost airily but I catch a hint in his voice, a hint that makes my breath catch in my throat.

I eye him closely in the mirror, but his face is neutral betraying no emotions that that tiny hint in his voice had. A hint of anger, remorse, longing.

I felt my stomach churn as he took the necklace from my palm, unclasping it and gently reclasping it around my slender throat. The chain was long enough, so that if I needed to, I could hide the pendent beneath my clothes and no one would be the wiser about it.

Except for today, today my neckline was too low for me to tuck the tiny, precious seashell out of sight, so it would be on display for all who bothered to look to see. Family heirloom, old trinket, a gift; excuse after excuse formed in my head for me to say to anyone who asked me about it. After all, as Finnick said, it wasn't like it was a ring or anything.

"Smile, Annie." He says to me, begs me almost. So I smile for him and push all my worry and fears to the back of my mind and he holds me so that neither of us will fall.

* * *

I wish that Finnick still walked with me to get signed in. He used to when I was younger, when he first moved in with Grandma and me. But as I got older, more people around the district found it strange for him to be walking with me to be signed in. So as of last year, we stopped and I silently filed in with all the other children of District Four by myself.

I fingered my seashell pendent that hung around my throat, ignoring the curious looks I received from other children around me.

I winced when they took my blood, but after five years of having it done, I was used to it. I remembered the panic attack that I had had the first time I had to get my blood taken while signing in, when I was twelve.

I was so scared that my grandmother – since both my parents were already dead by the time of my first reaping - had to be called over from when she had been previously standing on the stage out front of the Justice Building, to hold my hand while they took my blood. And then she, like the parents or guardians of every other twelve year old around me, walked me to the roped off area, right at the back of all the rest of the roped off areas, where all the twelve year olds stood.

She stayed with me for as long as she possibly could before returning to her place on stage. This was the year that Finnick won and came to live with Grandma and me.

It was him, the next year, my second reaping, that walked with me to be sign in, held my hand when they took my blood, before taking me to where the thirteen year olds stood.

It became a tradition until I turn sixteen and we decided it would probably be for the best if we stopped. I didn't want to, I felt comfortable and reassured when he was with me, the lose of it now leaves me feeling frighten and yarning for his comfort once more.

I silently file my way into the rope off section where the seventeen year olds girls stood; trying to ignore the boisterous girls, all chattering away about what it would be like to have the honour of being a tribute, to win the games, to have Finnick Odair all to themselves.

I tuned out after that. It is these girls – and boys too. I can see them from where I stand – who give our District the name of Careers that join us with District One and Two.

Most of us do not look for death, nor do we enjoy watching it and yet from these few adolescents around me we look to be as bloodthirsty as Two.

I cringe away from the bloodthirsty, energetic girls and moved off to the edge of the roped area, to where the quieter girls were huddled.

They all eyed me cautiously, like they always do. They seem to think that since I am the granddaughter of one Victor and the best friend of another that I am the same as those girls back there. They never give me a chance for me to prove that I'm not, that I'm just like them, that I like my life here in District Four, that all the action I want to see in my life is when I'm in a swimming meet, simply competing for a metal, not for my life.

I try to keep my irritation off my face at their closed mindedness and instead turn my attention to the stage, trying not to smile as I do so.

Finnick is looking like some kind of sea god, lounging in the foldout chair like it's some kind of throne, his face looking across the crowd as we are all below him, that we aren't worth his notice, his gaze fixed firmly on the ocean in the distance.

It's an act, all of it. Inside him, I know, he's a mess, that the reason he is looking over our heads is not because he thinks we are beneath him, but rather he can't bear to look at us, knowing, as he does, that two of our number is about to leave and possibly never return ever again. Well, except in a wooden box from the Capital.

I try to smile at him, but I know that he won't look my way, not until the reaping is over and he has to leave, then he'll come and find me and say goodbye for the weeks that he'll be away in the Capital, doing gods only knows what. And, in truth, I don't really want to know.

"It is both a time for repentance and a time for thanks." I look back up the stage again, where our Mayor is now standing in front of a microphone, looking out over the vast sea of District Four kids. I know that his twelve year old daughter has joined our ranks.

He reads out the lists of all our Victors, which are quite a few and only one has died of old age so far, making my grandmother now the oldest Victor of our district. Finnick is our youngest - being just fourteen years old when he won he's games - even though two years after he won, we had another Victor crowned; Trout Greenglass, but he was eighteen years old at the time of his victory while Finnick was still only sixteen.

As he reads out the list of our Victors and which year they had won, I looked around the square, looking at all the people from the Capital who were in charge of the cameras that were broadcasting this all over Panem, at the people who took our blood and sign us in.

All these people were from Capital; all taking some part in the slaughter of mostly innocent children and had no problem with it. It was a game to them, their favourite show of the year.

I swallowed thickly and went back to playing with my necklace.

The mayor finished reading the list of our Victors he went about introducing our District's escort, Stansen Flickershade who trotted out on to the centre of the stage the moment his name was called, grinning widely around at us as he called out, "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be _ever_ in your favour!"

It's hard to feel much sense of doom and gloom when Stansen Flickershade is around. He is just about the most ridiculous looking person I have ever seen in my life.

His hair was a brilliant blue colour. Or maybe it was a wig, considering how spiky it is. I wonder if he's ever spiked himself when he's touched his hair and drawn blood. His skin has been dyed the colour of lime green and he has different coloured blue swirls tattooed all over his body. But surprising his suit is quiet nice, subtle even. A simple blue, well tailor suit, nothing outstandingly freakish about it, just a normal suit, it is he. He who is the outlandish, freakish thing and yet he seems to have no idea that the whole district is trying not to laugh at him, hiding their laughter by faking coughs or behind their hands.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Finnick shaking his head at the sight of Stansen. He caught my eye and winked at me as Stansen rambles on and on about what an honour it is to be here, representing us to the rest of Panem and so on.

_Just get on with it_, I beg silently and I know I'm not the only one. Some of us want him to hurry up, to let us know that we are safe for another year, while others are dying to know whether they are going to go into the arena, to bring glory back to our district.

I fought the desire to pull a face at that.

They have no idea what they're wishing for, no idea what those games are really like. Neither do I, really, but I live with two people who have been in those terrible games. I know exactly how a Victor fairs, and it is, most of the time, not very well.

I wouldn't wish the fate of being a tribute on to anyone, even less for them to then become a Victor. Yes, you live pass the Arena, but you have to survive with that fact for the rest of your life.

"Well then, ladies first." I'm drawn once more out of my thoughts by Stansen as he bounces over to the glass ball that contains all the names of the girls - within the ages twelve to eighteen - of our district.

He reaches in, swirls his hand within a few hundred times, building suspense I guess he thinks, though really, he's just making everyone want to throw something at him to get him to hurry up already, before he buries his hand deep within the ball, right to the bottom, with a determined expression on his face – why did it look like he was searching for something in particular? Or someone? – before he finally plucked a piece of paper from the top of the pile, almost as if he's spot the slip of paper that he is searching for.

I can hear the crowd around me taking in a collective breath, waiting, waiting to hear who was going to leave us and probably not return, waiting to hear that we have been saved, saved for another year.

_Open it already_! I beg and I know I'm not the only girl who's thinking just that.

Smiling widely, he unfolded the piece of paper and read out…

"Annie Cresta."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yes, I know, a cliffhanger... of sorts. I'm sorry, I hate them too.  
_P.S_ I own that pendant that Finnick gave Annie in this chapter. Its actually what originally - besides from the books of course - inspired me to write this fic.  
Thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed and thank you to all the people who have already reviewed, favourited and put this fic on alert.


	3. Chapter Three

**Author's Note:** Hello all. Here is Chapter Three, slightly longer than the first two chapters, but that's alright. I wanted to post this chapter before I headed for bed, since tomorrow I'll probably be too tired after my final networking exam (wish me luck), so yeah, here it is.  
Please enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter Three**

I remember this one time, right after my parents had died and I was so miserable that I wasn't thinking about the ocean as I climbed some rocks on the beach near my grandmother's house. I wasn't watching the ocean as I climbed, not seeing just how rough the waves had become, and so didn't see the huge wave that crashed against the rocks I was climbing until it hit me and pulled me back into the raging ocean.

The feeling that had given me, a small child being hit by a huge wave and then being dragged almost to the bottom of the bay by its strength, knocked almost all the air out of my lungs. Somehow, through my panic filled mind, I managed to remember all that I had been taught from my earliest days of learning how to swim and I was able to swim my way back to the surface and somehow make it to a boat that had seen me fall in and had come to rescue me.

That feeling of air being smashed out of me, the feeling of an unbreakable force being pressed down upon my chest, it was the same feelings that I felt then that I felt now when my name was called.

"Annie Cresta? Where is Annie?" I heard Stansen cry loudly and cheerfully from the stage. Once again, as I had as a child, somehow through my panic filled mind, some part of me made me move, forced me to move. Move or you'll drown. Move or you'll drown!

But I'll drown if I go!

Move!

I took a few deep breaths to control my frantic heart and panicking mind before I started walking for the stage.

Someone will volunteer for me. One of those girls, they'll volunteer and then I won't have to go. I won't have to die and by dying, kill Grandma and Finnick with me.

Grandma and Finnick.

I lifted my head and looked at them, looked at their barely contained horrified expression. Why did they look so scared when someone is probably going to volunteer for me? I wondered before remembering.

I was seventeen.

Seventeen year olds are considered old enough to fend for themselves; seventeen year olds have usually fulfilled their Career training and are raring to go.

Seventeen year olds… don't get volunteers…

That almost stopped me in my tracks but somehow I managed to climb up the stairs, without tripping and stand in front of Stansen, who's positively beaming at me. I never realised he had yellow teeth. Was that something he had done, surgically or doesn't he know what a teethbrush is?

I can hear clapping, I guess, for me, but I don't pay much attention for it. I was too busy trying to keep myself from screaming. Die horribly or come back broken and mentally disturbed? Were those honestly my only choices?

"Now for the boy's turn." I heard Stansen gush and I don't know if it was just me, and I'm sure it just was, but in my panic filled mind I seem to think that his time picking out the boy tribute's name went by a lot faster than when his was picking out the girl's tribute's name, my name. But maybe that's just me.

"Merle Anchorson." I heard several loud cheers and realise that the boy who has been called was happy about it. Happy to be going into the Hunger Game. Happy to see kids die all around him. Happy to see me die! Bloody Career!

Merle steps up on to the stage with a bound in his step, grinning from ear to ear as he shook Stansen's hand, something I forgot to do. Were we meant to shake his hand? I couldn't remember.

Stansen is thrilled, of course, and trills out a loud welcome to us and for everyone to give us a loud round of applause, while the Mayor once more got to his feet from where he was sitting with Grandma and Finnick and all the other District Victors and started to rattle off the dreary speech about the Treaty of Treason before he motions for Merle and me to shake hands.

He's huge! And I'm not exactly short, but this guy is taller than Finnick and far broader in the shoulders too. You can see his muscles beneath his shirt.

I feel my mind wanting to shut down again, as it does sometimes when I feel like I'm dealing with too much. It did it when my parents died, and it does it sometimes when things are bad at home, when before Finnick and Grandma's are having bad nights and the nightmares just won't leave them be. And it's doing it now, to protect me from further pain, but I push it aside. I can't hide within my mind forever.

I shake his hand, fearing that he might just break it with the tiniest of squeezes.

I yank my hand back the moment the anthem starts to play and while it plays, I force my mind to get itself in order. The last thing I need is to appear weak. Appearing weak means no sponsors and sometimes having sponsors and not having sponsors is the difference between life and death.

There was that girl, Johanna Mason; she won her games by appearing weak for most of it, I remind myself but then remembered that she acted weak until the final eight and that was when she showed her true colours and revealed just how affective she was with an axe.

I shuddered.

And she and Finnick are good friends, I marvel, though I'm not jealous. Finnick needs friends, real friends. He needs more than just Grandma and me. And once I go…

Once the anthem has stopped and we're being ushered into the Justice Building, a place I've only been in a handful of times and those times were only because my grandmother had needed to go there for one reason or another.

I've certainly never been within the room that I was put into to say my final goodbye to family and friends.

I sat down on one of the couches and looked up at the clock on the wall. I have no family, besides my grandmother and I'm not sure if she's allowed to come and see me or not. They might think she'll give me an unfair advantage or something over my fellow tribute. Though I don't know how she can, since she retired from being a Mentor three years ago, after her first (and hopefully only) heart attack. But if she isn't allowed to come, then how can I say goodbye to her? To tell how much I love her and that she needs to remember to take her medication, no matter what. Well, I suppose I can tell all these things to Finnick, but I want to tell her myself.

And what about Finnick? What if he isn't mentoring this year? I doubt it, but…

I take the seashell necklace into my hand again, squeezing it tightly as I squash down my panic.

After about three minutes of being on my own, the door opens and a couple of friends that I have from school come in. They tell me that I can win and that they believe in me and that they'll miss me.

The missing me part is probably the only truthful thing that they've said so far. Alright, so maybe they do believe in me, but they can't honestly expect to see me win, do they? Me?

I get a hug from each of them, each telling me in turn to "Swim Straight Through All Waters" which is the motto of our school and what our swimming coach is always telling us before meets.

After they leave my Swimming Coach comes in and tells me basically the same thing, though she is a bit more confidant in my abilities than my friends or I am.

"You can win this, you know." She informs me coolly.

"I…"

"You can. You are the best and fastest swimmer I've seen in years. The same goes with your running. Run when you need to, swim when you need to and hide. You can win this thing Cresta. You just have to believe that you can." With that she handed me a medal hanging from a soft cloth cord. A medal that I wasn't suppose to receive until the end of next year, at my graduation ceremony. But now…

I felt my eyes water a little as I stared down at the tiny gold medal.

I had come first in the school! I was the best swimmer in the whole school!

It had been years since someone had won this medal and I had, but the only reason I was being presented with it now was because I was most likely going to be dead before they can give it to me properly.

"As you know this isn't given until graduation but I thought you might need a little motivation and good luck while you're in those games, so," She closed my hand over the medal and smiled sadly down at me.

"Good luck Annie Cresta. Swim straight through all waters." And with that, after she kissed my forehead, she left too and I was alone again.

I sat heavily back down on the couch, feeling drained emotionally, turning the little medal over and over again in my palm.

I didn't have to wait long before a Peacekeeper came into the room, informing me that it was time to leave.

It was a short but miserable ride to the train station from the Justice Building.

I had been in a car a couple of times befpre but that was only when I was greeting Grandma and Finnick after they've come back from the Capital after the Hunger Games or from a Victory Tour. But I've never been in car by myself, or rather without them, since I wasn't by myself, Merle Anchorson was beside me and waving and cheering loudly to the crowd who was following the car and meeting it at the station.

When we got out we were almost overrun by people; reporters flittering around, camera's being shoved into our faces and questions that I couldn't understand being screamed at us.

I was feeling overwhelmed and suffocated but I somehow managed to keep a smile on my face and wave to the crowd as I all put raced for the shelter of the train.

I scrambled on with Merle behind me still yelling and waving to the crowd while I was simply desperate to get out of there. I hope my eagerness to escape the crowd is taken as eagerness to get to the Capital.

After a few more moments of being forced to smile for the cameras we were allowed to escape into the train's interior.

As soon as the door closes behind us, the train starts off and I'm taken aback by just how fast it is. Of course, I've seen from the outside how fast it is, waiting for Grandma and Finnick to return but on the inside, it's so different. Even though I know we're moving, and I can see by the windows that we are, I can't feel the sensation of movement at all. It was truly a strange sensation, seeing that we were moving but not feeling it.

"Come on, move already." I hear Merle say before I'm being shoved roughly to the side of the corridor that we are standing in and he strutting his way down the corridor in front of me.

With a reluctant sigh, I followed him, wondering idly where Finnick is and if my grandmother was alright.

This isn't the first time that one of her family members has become a tribute and it will not be the first time that that family member hasn't come home.

With that cheerful thought playing around my head, I followed a staff member of the train as they led me to my very own private chamber; showing me the contents of all the drawers and the closet, all filled with the finest clothes that I've ever seen in my life.

She also showed me to my private bathroom and taught me how exactly my shower worked, since apparently there have be a number of cases where tributes before me have burnt themselves severely from not knowing how to work these showers. And they couldn't have that now, could they? Have us hurting ourselves before we entered the games? Nothing could be more terrible than that?

Well apparently there is and that's our manners. Or rather, lack of.

When she leaves me to go about her other duties, informing me that supper will be in about an hour, I flop down upon the bed and stared up at the ceiling of the train for a few moments before once more pushing myself up right and looking around the room.

Placing my medal down on the bedside table (I hadn't let go of it since I received it); I went over to investigate the contents of my drawers and closet.

The clothes in them really are of the finest quality that I have ever seen in my life. I run my fingers gently over them, before finally picking out a blue shirt and trouser before heading off to have a shower, which loosen up my tense muscles and made me feel a little more relaxed even though I knew that the only thing that could relax me know was a good swim in the ocean, but since that's near impossible now… and I hadn't even said goodbye to it.

I felt sick in my gut once more and I turn off the hot water so that now it only ran cold water over my body and I let a few tears fall before once more pulling myself together and got dressed.

I carefully folded my mother's dress and placed it at the end of my bed, picked up my medal, put it over my head and tucked it down under my shirt, so that it, as well as my seashell pendent from Finnick, were both touching my skin but were hidden from the rest of the world.

I looked out my window, taking in the scenery as it pass us by in a blur. It wouldn't have mattered if the ocean was still visible or not, it would be near impossible to make it out, what with the speed that we are currently travelling at.

But even so, I quietly said my goodbyes to it and to everyone - as few as they were - that I had cared about and had left behind.

I was going to die. There was no fighting it.

I wasn't big or strong and I wasn't particularly good at anything, besides swimming and running, but those weren't exactly traits that kept you alive during a battle for your life.

Yes, I could run from danger, but how long can you run before danger finally catches up to you and then, it's then that I am truly doomed.

I take a few deep breaths as I come to accept my fate only to have a wrench thrown into it by the person who had just come storming into my room.

"Finn-" I start but I am swept into his arms, his lips pressed fiercely against mine before I can finish. We kiss and cling to each other for several moments before he pulls away, his eyes wild and frantic.

"We'll get you out. You'll live. We'll get you out." He said this over and over again, like a mantra.

"Finnick. Finnick." I grab his face and force him to look at me. "It's ok."

He stared down at me for a few seconds before he scowled.

"Don't you dare!" He growl, looking furious.

I stare back up at him, startled.

"Don't I dare what?" I asked bewildered by his anger.

"Don't you dare give up! Don't you dare for one moment!"

"Finnick." I say, feeling desperate now, "Finnick. I'm not- I'm not a fighter. I can't. You know that I can't be in the same room when the Games are playing, especially when someone…" I trailed off. "I'm not strong like you! And I – I don't have a chance. Seriously, you must realise that. You must see that!"

"You do." He insists looking desperate now. "You do Annie. Trust me, you might not think you do, but I do. There is more to you than you know."

"I don't want to be like Johanna Mason." I yelped. "I don't want to turn in to a vicious killer because I finally snapped."

"That wasn't exactly what happened with her." He started before shaking his head. "Look, just don't give up on yourself, alright? Please."

"Please Annie." I looked into his desperate, pleading eyes. "I can't survive without you. I need you. I need you to live. If you d… give up, then I… I will too."

I scowled up at him.

How could he? How dare he! How…

I saw him start to smile in relief and I felt my fury at him rise. He had done that on purpose!

"So, no giving up." He said and kissed me before I could yell at him for breaking my resolve to simply let fate happen and to not fight my inevitable death by the hands of the Capital.

"Alright, so suppers ready. Come on." His arm was around my waist and steering me out of my room and down the corridor to a dinning room with polished panel walls. All around the sides the room was food. Most of which I had never seen before, some looking so pretty or elegantly crafted that I didn't want to eat them, because that would only destroy their beauty.

Finnick let go of my waist the moment we entered and I walked to the table, my bare feet sinking deeply into the soft carpet with him trailing a few steps behind me.

I fought back a sigh.

If I was going to have to pretend to be nothing more than a tribute to him than my last couple of days alive were going to be even worse than I had originally thought.

I sat down at the table, looking over all the extremely delicate and breakable china that was laid out before me. There was no way I could eat off of these delicate, breakable things; I would break them before I even had a mouthful of whatever supper was.

A couple of the districts younger Victors' entered the room and Finnick moved over to talk with them. I wasn't sure which one would be acting as my mentor, maybe all of them, or maybe just Finnick, but then I wasn't sure if he was going to act a mentor this year or if he was simply going to the Capital for his other "job".

I slouched down further in my chair, glaring at the fine tableware, half tempted to peg some of it at the opposite wall, just to see how breakable the stuff really was.

I heard the door open again, but didn't bother looking up to see who it was, probably more mentors simply along for the ride and to visit their friends from other districts or maybe a couple of them had "Jobs" like Finnick. I wasn't sure and truthfully I didn't really care.

I didn't care until I smelt the familiar, but subtle perfume that my grandmother wore. My head snapped up and turn sharply in the direction of the door. My mouth dropped yet again.

"Grandma!" I was out of my chair and in her arms within moments, taking all of my self-control not to simply burst into tears in her arms like I used to when I was a child and something bad had happen or was happening.

Instead of crying, I simply buried my face into her sweet smelling hair, letting her presence wash calm over me as she rubbed my back.

"What-what are you doing here?" I asked once we pulled away and I helped her to chair next to me. "You're retired, you shouldn't be here." I looked around at the other Victors' who had all stopped talking and were watching us with varying looks of amusement, sympathy and in some cases disgust and jealousy.

I ignored them and went on to search the kinder faces, but it was my grandmother who answered me with a snort.

"As if I would let you go off to the Capital by yourself. No grandchild of mine is coming home with a full body dye job." She informed me quite seriously and I knew I wasn't the only one who laughed at her words. But while I giggled, I thought over what she had said, reading between the lines. She hadn't wanted me to be alone, she was determined for me come back home again. Yet another person was making themselves believe that I would win. That I could win. Why couldn't they see…

I started to shake my head but my grandmother grasped my chin firmly with her hand, forcing me to look into her brilliant green eyes.

"You can win, Annie. You will. I'll make sure that you do."

"Bit mean of you to just write off the tribute with the higher chance of survival simply because of my being your granddaughter." I replied in a hushed tone because even though I could hear the Victors' talking amongst themselves once more, I knew that most of them were probably listening in on our conversation.

"Just because he appears to be stronger than you, Annie, doesn't mean that he will last longer than you will. Most of these Games are won by those who use their brains, and that boy has a lot of arrogance and confidence to him but brains…" she simply shook her head.

"Yeah, but a lot of them are also won through pure strength." I whispered back.

"You have talents Annie. You aren't going in without anything up your sleeve. You can swim, which is a lot more than can be said for most of the other tributes, along with those from Districts One and Two. Don't give up on yourself so easily."

I looked at her with a weak smile and she smiled back.

"Speaking of swimming," I said clearing my throat and fishing around the collar of my shirt, searching for my medal, "look what I got." I pulled the soft cloth cord up and over my head and handed the medal to my grandmother, who gasped in delight.

"Oh Annie."

"I was meant to get it next year, for when I graduate but," I shrugged my shoulders up and down as she turned the medal over in her hands, her finger running lightly over my name that was engraved in the back of it.

"They've obviously known that you are the best for quite some time." She smirked at me while I blushed.

"Doesn't mean anything." I grumbled taking the medal back from her and slipping back over my neck, "just means that if I'm thrown into an arena full of water, I won't drown after the first day or so."

"Yeah, and everyone else will and you'll come home the winner, simple as that." Said Marlin from where he stood near us, by a window, snacking on some fish cake things. Marlin won his game about thirty or so odd years ago, lost his left arm and leg during it and so now has automated ones. He also acts as a sort of Head Mentor for our District tributes.

I smile weakly at him, while he toasts me with the delicate looking fish cake, while inside I simply feel nauseous again.

Merle finally joins us when supper is being brought out to us. He sits down at one end of the table, while I'm up the other. He immediately lurches into asking question after question of different things around the Games.

I try to listen in because I know the answers that our Victors give are important and could save my life, but after a few moments I feel too sick at how casually one of the Victor's describes how he took the life of a fourteen year old boy tribute with a hand-made spear.

I started to feel the sensation of being overwhelmed again, making it hard to breathe, let alone eat the courses of food that keep being placed in front of me.

They are all beautifully made but each one simply makes me feel sicker and sicker in my gut that I want to just stop and go straight back to my room and sleep, maybe find that this is all just some terrible dream.

"You need to eat." My grandmother whispers to me, once she sees yet another untouched or barely touched plate of food being taken away from in front of me.

"I'm not hungry."

"Annie." She puts on her serious grandmother voice and I can't help but give her a 'are you serious' look, before forcing myself to eat the food that has just been placed in front of me.

I barely taste it though and I simply feel sick as I keep hearing snippets of conversation from the other end of the table, a couple of them are laughing over long dead tributes final moments. I can see now, why we are known as a Career District.

Even though I've known all these people all my life, I've never actually seen them in Victor/Mentor mode, so seeing them, all of them, this way, talking about their own Games or Games that they've mentor is a completely new experience for me, a disturbing one at that, with some of them seeming to take glee of remembering their pass kills or the kills that they've witness being made over the years of mentoring.

Maybe we are more bloodthirsty than I realised.

"Annie…" my grandmother started because I was once more going off my food again, but I cut her off with a sudden thought.

"How did you win your games?" I asked overcome with sudden curiosity, a sudden need to know that my grandmother wasn't like those at the other end of the table, informing Merle on the best way to disarm and disable your opponent with a jagged rock.

The only positive thing I was taking from this dinner was that neither Finnick nor my grandmother were joining in with these disturbing conversations. There were a few others who weren't joining in too, but most of the Victors were.

My grandmother blinked at me in surprise and I saw from where he was sitting, across the table and a few seats down from us, Finnick's eyes flicker in our direction. I knew he was curious too to know how my gentle, warm, ever-loving and peaceful grandmother had ever won her Hunger Games.

Please, don't let her be like them. Please, don't be secretly relishing in the fact that you took innocent lives.

"I hid."

"What?" This time I was the one who blinked in surprise.

"I hid." My grandmother said again, matter of fact as she dug into her fried fish and mashed potatoes.

"Hid?" I said slowly.

"Yes, hid."

"For your whole game?" I was speechless. Seriously, can someone actually do that?

"Ah, but you see darling, my games were quite a bit different from how they are now. It was easier to hide back then, for you to be forgotten. There were less cameras around then and the Gamemakers had less part during the games than they do now. Back then it was just ourselves against ourselves, no outside interference. It meant that the games were longer, because it took longer to hunt down everyone because there weren't any forces driving us together, but it made being able to disappear and go by unnoticed a lot easier. I simply found a nice hiding spot by a pool of water and waited for the other tributes to simply…

"Kill themselves off and since you were the last one standing, you won even though you didn't kill anyone." She nodded.

"That's why my games aren't shown very often. Or at all, rather. I didn't do anything in particular to bring the wrath of the Capital down upon my head, but I was very unpopular for what I did."

"For hiding and not killing anyone."

She nodded and sighed.

"They made me pay for that, later on. When President Snow came into office." Her eyes became cloudy and I suddenly started to wonder.

My parents?

My parents had died in a boating accident. Bits of their boat had washed up upon the shore but their bodies were never recovered. And I had an uncle and an aunt, my grandmother's two other children, both of whom I had never met because they both died during their respective Hunger Games.

I looked at my grandmother and suddenly understood why she held so much grief within her, why she put so much effort into protecting me and keeping me from harm's way. Why she had been, at first, so against mine and Finnick's relationship.

She was trying to hide me, like she had hidden herself all those years ago. But she could only hide and protect me for so long.

I guess I should be thankful that I've had as long as I've had to go by unnoticed by the Capital. And I wasn't going to just waste all the effort my grandmother put in to keeping me safe.

"I'll be ok." I whisper to her softly, causing her to look at me, startled.

I grinned back her before starting to eat.

I ate so much that I really did feel like I was going to be sick, but I seem to have reassured my grandmother and made her happy. And even if I only have a few more weeks left to live, I want those weeks to mean something, maybe not to the rest of Panem, but at least to my grandmother and Finnick.

I want to die with them being proud of me and with them knowing that I loved them more than anything else and that I want them to be happy, more than anything else in the world.

Once the meal was over and I was fighting to keep the rich food down – I saw that Merle too looked a bit green in the face – we were all ushered by Stansen Flickershade from the dining room to another compartment to watch a recap of the reapings across Panem.

I felt even more ill when I sat down on the floor to watch the reaping, my back pressed against my Grandmother's, her fingers gently playing with my hair, undoing the knot work that Finnick had created, so that my hair now fell loosely down my back.

It was hard to watch the reaping, harder to listen to Merle, the Victors and Stansen all making comments about all the children who were reaped for the Games.

The kids from District One and Two looked like typical Careers.

The four of them look like they can barely contain their glee when they are chosen. The boy and girl from District One are tall and beautiful but definitely show the signs of those who have spent many hours staying fit and working on skills to prepare them for the Games. The two kids from District Two are monstrous in size and are completely terrifying. Not in their looks so much, but their eagerness to be in the Games, the looks that they gave the camera. These two were in these Games not so much to win to win, to bring glory or whatever back to District Two, they were in it to kill.

I pressed my back more firmly against Grandma's legs, her hand on my shoulder squeezed back in sympathy.

The kids from District Three are scrawny, with barely any meat on them. They weren't smiling when they are called up; in fact the fourteen year old girl tribute bursts into hysterics before she even reaches to stage.

I hear a snigger or two from somewhere in the room as she is more of less shoved up and on to the stage by a couple of Peacemakers.

I'm surprised by how much my inner panic came across as boredom when my own reaping appeared on screen and they did a close up of my face. I honestly looked as if I was bored or indifferent about the whole thing, when inside I was a mess. I do feel relieved by this though; people won't think I'm weak because of how I reacted during the reaping.

I fight the desire to roll my eyes as I watch Merle on screen more or less bound on to the stage after his name was called.

The other districts after that were much the same as Three; boys and girls walking slowly to the stage after their names are called, all knowing that they'll most likely never be coming home again.

The boy tribute called from District Six was truly heartbreaking. From the moment the camera found him after his name was called it was obvious that he was of a simple mind, his blank eyes confused, not understanding that he had to go up on to the stage. He fought and cried when the Peacemakers tried to force him. It wasn't until his eleven year old brother took him by the hand and led him to the stage that the boy calmed down and became once more placid, smiling sweetly for the crowd.

I swallowed thickly.

He was just a baby. A baby trapped in a sixteen year olds body, there was no way he would survive, no way he could live through the Hunger Games.

I don't know how I managed to watch the full recap of the reapings after the boy from District Six was called; I simply allowed my mind to wander, unable to bear watching anymore children who were doomed to die.

"Come on, Bed now, big day tomorrow." I was shaken from the depths of my mind by Stansen's loud voice.

"Come on, sweetie." Grandma said gently as I sighed and stood up and helped her to her feet.

I walked her to her private room.

"My beautiful girl." She whispered, running a hand gently down the side of my face.

"I'll be ok. I'll fight, I promise."

"You will?" my grandmother asked, her eyes hopeful.

"Yeah, I will." I watched as she closed her eyes for a moment, before she opened them again and smiled at me gently.

"Good girl." She whispered before kissing my cheek. "Try and get some sleep."

"Try." I said and she smiled before she entered her own room.

With a sigh, I padded slowly back to my own room.

I changed into a pair of loose shorts and shirt before crawling into the bed, burying myself within its softness.

I was just beginning to fall asleep when I heard the door of my room open and close quietly before my bed moved as someone bigger than me hopped into it.

"Finnick?" I rolled over, my hands reaching out for him. He slid his arms around my waist, kissing my mouth gently before telling me to try and sleep.

I did and surprisingly soundly.

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**Author's Note:** Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Chapter Four will be up over the weekend, most likely.

Bye for now


	4. Chapter Four

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone. Here's chapter four. It's a tad short but the chapters do get longer as this story progresses. I'm holidays now - three weeks YAY! - so I'll be spending a lot of these next couple of weeks writing up part 2 and hopefully starting on part three of this fic.  
Since I'm up to writing up part 2, I was just wondering what kind of Arena you guys have in mind for Annie's games. Obviously there's some kind of dam or lake that will later flood the arena later on, but I was wondering what thoughts you guys had about her games. I have a few ideas for the arena but I'm curious to hear your thoughts as well.

* * *

**Chapter Four**

I woke up the next morning feeling completely safe. Like nothing in the world could ever possibly harm me because I was safe in his arms.

Wait…

I wiggled about in the bed.

Yes, I was trapped within warm, solid arms, being pressed into a muscular chest and am mere millimetres from falling off the bed. So really everything felt normal, exactly as it should be; only it wasn't.

I opened my eyes and couldn't help the little cry of dismay that escaped my lips when I took in the room that I was in. I was in my room, on the train that was speeding me towards the Capital, towards my death.

I didn't even bother trying to remind myself that I had decided last night that I was going to try and fight my inevitable death, for Grandma's sake and Finnick's. And alright, I guess my own.

"Annie?" My little dismayed cry had woken Finnick and his green eyes were searching my face worriedly. "Are you alright."

"Oh, I'm fine." I replied, my sarcasm biting. Only it didn't bite him, he simply snorted and pulled me closer to his chest once more.

"When did you get in here?" I demanded, trying to feel mad at him for invading my space after basically ignoring me all of last night.

"Last night."

"And who said you could come in?" I asked, trying to sound angry or at the very least annoyed. He cracked an eye open and looked me in the face to see whether or not I was truly mad with him for being here. He closed his eye again a moment later, obviously thinking I wasn't as mad as I was making myself out to be.

"Are you even…"

"Annie," he said, running his hand gently up and down my back, "go back to sleep, ok. When we get to the Capital, you'll be run off your feet by your prep team and stylist and then there's the Opening Ceremony tonight. Today is going to be exhausting, so sleep ok."

"But I'm angry." I whisper as I placed my head back down upon his chest. His fingers started playing with my hair.

"I know and you have every right to be, but right now you need to sleep, it's still early."

I sigh heavily, but in truth, I didn't really want to be awake and Finnick was warm and comfortable and he was softly humming an old tune that my Grandmother used to hum to us when we had bad dreams.

I squeezed my eyes shut and somehow fall back to sleep.

When I woke again, at a much more reasonable hour, I find that I am alone in bed and that Stansen Flickershade is banging on my door, crying in an overly excited voice that it was time for me to get up because today was a big, big day.

I rolled myself out of bed, not feeling overly refreshed even though I slept for basically a solid eight hours.

I pulled on a green shirt today, a green that compliments my own green eyes. It was soft to touch and shimmered slightly as I moved, reminding me of the ocean just after a spring storm. I pulled on the trousers that I wore yesterday, since they weren't really dirty, before yanking my hair into a high tail that fell from the crown of my head.

I looked in the mirror.

I looked like Annie today. Everyday Annie. I could be going to school or to the markets, absolutely anywhere within District Four, but instead I'm speeding my way to the Capital.

I swallowed thickly.

We can't be far from Capital now.

My stomach rumbles and I look away from the mirror, away from Everyday Annie, knowing that she would be disappearing again once I'm in the hands of my stylist and prep team.

I took a deep breath, bracing myself and left the safety, the solitude of my bedroom and walked down the corridor to the dining car, my bare feet once more sinking deeply into the soft, thick carpet.

I reach the dining car and find that I'm one of the last people to arrive.

"So Sleeping Beauty has finally decided to grace us with her presence." Boomed Trout Greenglass as I entered, his grin becoming a leer as I flushed red and I ducked my head as I padded quickly over to where my grandmother was sitting.

I heard a yelp of pain and I when I looked for the source I saw Trout wiping bits of boiled egg from his right eye. The chuckling around the table didn't given any clues as to who pegged the boiled egg at Trout, but Finnick was looking a little too innocent as he dug into his breakfast with great enthusiasm.

"Eat some breakfast little one." Grandma said as she took my plate from in front of me and started loading it with varies things.

"I'm not…" I tried to start but the sharp look she gave me stopped me short.

"But you're going to eat anyway, aren't you?" I nodded somewhat mutely as I took my fully loaded plate of food from her and started eating, tasting more of the flavours this morning than I had last night.

I was half way through my plate – I had suddenly found my appetite – when Marlin suddenly turned his attention on to me and asked me what my talent was.

I looked at him blankly.

"Talent?"

"Yes, talent. What are you good at? Using a sword, bow and arrow? A trident." He shot a smirk in Finnick's direction.

I noticed the tiny flinch in Finnck's shoulders at the smirk, but he gave no response, simply downing his cup of coffee before pouring himself another.

"I'm not." I said, feeling my face heat up.

"Not what?" Marlin asked, he was starting to look impatient now. Beside him I saw Merle start to grin into his plate and I felt a stab of anger shoot through me, but I forced myself to remain calm.

"I'm not good at any of those things. I've never touched a sword or bow and arrow in my life. And the only trident I have ever thrown was at fish." And I missed… completely. But I wasn't about to tell them that, I could already see that most of them were putting me down as a lost cause.

A few were looking between me and Grandma in disbelief; a few were even looking in Finnick's direction. I felt my face grow all the more hotter.

"You weren't trained? At all?" Marlin asked in disbelief.

"No. Besides it's against the rules to be trained before the Games." Though, of course, that doesn't stop our district, or Districts One and Two from training most of our tributes.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Finnick shake his head ever so slightly.

"So you can do nothing? No skills that you can use to defend yourself or win the Games with?" Marlin said sounding thoroughly exasperated.

"I had no skills or training and I still won my Games." Grandma said sounding a tad icy. Marlin scowled at her and she scowled right on back.

"She's the best Swimmer of her age." Finnick said suddenly, "and she's a fast runner too." As he spoke he gave me look clearly telling me to stop being silly and start helping myself.

"Swimming and Running won't help her much." One of our other Victor's sighed.

"But they can possibly help her enough." Finnick said with a shrug.

Merle snorted and I glared at him, suddenly fed up with him and everyone else in the room.

"I can run faster than you." I snapped at him. Merle looked up from his plate, startled.

"So?" he replied, looking amused by my sudden flash of anger.

"So, you came first in your year this year. You were the fastest runner in the school… until I beat you."

"So?"

"Well, if it comes down to running away from something or towards something, I'll win… and you'll lose. And if I'm faster than you, I'll probably be faster than everybody else in the Arena, both on land," I stood up then from the table, my appetite once more gone, "and in the water."

I looked down at my grandmother, who had ever so slight smirk gracing her lips. "Can I be excused?"

She nodded and I stalked out of the oppressive room.

I made it all the way back to my room before the tears started to fall. They were right of course. What help would being a fast runner or good swimmer do me in the arena? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Running would only get me so far. At some point I'm going to have to fight someone and when that happens, I'll most likely lose.

_You can hide and hope for the best_, a voice in my head said but I shook it away. Nowadays, the Gamemarkers made it near impossible for someone who simply hides to win. If they don't fight, they are usually taken down by something Capital made. No one who simply spends the whole game hiding wins anymore.

I felt a wave of nausea hit me and I stumbled for my bathroom, throwing up most of my breakfast. Damn rich Capital food!

When I'm done being sick, I lie back down on my bed, not doing anything, simply staring at the ceiling of the room.

I stay like this until Finnick comes into my room. He looks tired and worried, not a usual look for him.

"I'm not making this easy for you… or Grandma, am I?" I ask as he comes to sit by my feet, lifting them up and setting them back down on his lap, his hands gently massaging them.

"No, you're not. Most of them back there want to put all our effort behind Merle," he pulled a slight face as he said Merle's name.

"Then let them then." I replied though I feel sick in my gut again.

"Annie." I look at him and I see so much pain in his eyes, "I thought you said you were going to try."

"How can I try when I can do _nothing_?" I demanded and he rolled his eyes.

"But you can. As you said, you'll probably be the fastest person in there. And you won't be the only one who has never held a weapon before in their life. Except that you have," I give him a questioning look, "you can fish. You've speared fished since you were a small child. You know how to throw a spear."

"A light weight one. Not one that can piece human flesh."

"Yes, and I always used a trident that could do that from the start. I learnt Annie, and it wasn't hard. Just takes a little more strength behind it, that's all."

He said it all so calmly, like it was nothing, like it meant nothing to him that he had taken the lives of others by using the skills that we had learnt from childhood.

"Come on, we're almost there. If you can't impress the others, you can at least try and impress the Capital. Despite what you might think, you need them on your side just as much, if not more than your mentors." He let go of my feet and stood up, heading for my closet. A moment later he came out with some silver sandals that had a tiny heel on them, which he strapped to my feet. He then placed my Medal around my neck, tucking it beneath my shirt where it hid with my seashell necklace.

He pulled me to my feet and looked me up and down, accessing me.

"Is Everyday Annie presentable enough for the Capital's standards?" I asked dryly and Finnick's lips quirked into a smile.

"I think so. Just don't forget to smile, alright?" He ran his hand over my cheek. I forced my lips into a smile and he lightly bumped his forehead against mine.

"Come on, let's go." He kissed the tip of my nose fondly before stepping back and gesturing for me to leave my room first.

Together we walk back to the dining car where everyone else was assembled. They barely glanced in our direction as we entered, all of them simply staring out the window at the Capital that was coming into view as our train exited one of the tunnels that passes through the mountains that completely surround the Capital.

I dashed for a window, feeling my mouth drop at the splendour that is Panem ruling city. The cameras weren't lying about it being grand. If anything, they hadn't done it justice at all.

I looked at all the buildings, built so high they look like they are touching the sky, glistening all colours of the rainbow in the mid-morning sunlight, at the shiny cars that are so fast and bight they are hard to look at for too long, making your head ache when your eyes try to keep up with their speed. But the strangest things of all were by far the people.

They were all so odd. Dressed in odd clothes, with bizarre hair and painted faces. Everything about them and their fantastic city was superficial; there was no depth to them or to their buildings, to anything really. Nothing looked real, everything was artificial.

"It's too bright." I whisper to Finnick who is leaning on the carriage wall beside me. "Nothing looks real. The people, the buildings, nothing. Even that park," I point to a park that we are passing, filled with trees and flowers, but have all been grown in an orderly fashion. Not a weed in sight, not a single tree out of line, every flower in every flower bed matching, "looks fake."

"That's the Capital for you. Wait til you meet the people." Finnick said with a smirk that held little humour.

I've never seen him like this. His whole body is stiff and he looks like he's carry a huge weight on his shoulders. And his eyes.

His eyes are the worst.

His face is blank except for the smirk, but his eyes are desperate, like he would give anything to be anywhere else other than here. So would I for that matter, but his desperation to escape this place seems to be even greater than my own.

I touch his hand gently.

"It'll be ok." I whispered and he gives me a tight smile. I feel the train start to slow as we enter another tunnel.

"Listen, we'll be at the station any moment now and you'll be handed over to your prep team. You're not going to like what they're going to do to you. But that doesn't matter because they don't care, so save yourself the grief and don't fight them. Just let them do their job and try not to feel embarrassed or self-conscious or anything like that. If it helps, don't think of them as people, you won't feel so violated then." I stare at him wide eyed and he shrugged, then he stepped away me.

"Wha…" sarcasm

"Wave." He tells me and I look out the window and I see a whole crowd of weirdly dressed people standing at the station, waving and pointing excitedly at the train.

I gulp and start to wave.

"Smile." Finnick said and I force myself to smile and the crowd seems to become even crazier.

This is insane, I thought miserably, but I keep it up until the train completely stops and we a being herded out of the train by Peacekeepers and Stansen Flickershade, whose babbling excitedly.

"Good luck." Grandma says as I pass her, her smile is sympathetic.

"Bye." And I'm back to being surrounded by deafening yelling and screaming, flashing lights everywhere and cameras sticking themselves into my face.

But somehow I keep up my smiling/waving act and before I know it I'm being herded off the station towards a car and everything is quiet again.

But apparently not for long.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Chapter five will be up soon. Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts for Annie's games/arena.

Bye for now.


	5. Chapter Five

**Author's Note:** Hi Everyone. Sorry for the wait with this chapter. I was down at my Dad's and I forgot my dongle. So yeah, no internet for a couple of days as he only has the one dongle himself and he needed to use it for work.  
Um, a tad worried about what everyone will think about this chapter. When I said I was doing this fic different from all the other "Annie's Games' fanfics that are out there, I really, really meant it. This fanfic is different from all the rest that I have read and I'm praying that I will not be shot because of it. What differences I've made are not terrible, they're just different. I'm just making Annie's games just a little more awful than they already are, but I won't say anymore here as you'll discover what I mean by the end of this chapter and hopefully you will not hate me for doing this to poor Annie.  
Anyway, please read and enjoy this chapter, let me know your thoughts. No flames, but I do listen to any creative criticism that you may have.

* * *

**Chapter Five**

I've been shaving my body since I was an early teenager, because of my swimming, but I've never waxed and after this experience, if I survive the Hunger Games, I never will again.

R-i-i-i-p!

I bite down hard upon my bottom lip as Cersie, a woman with golden skin and silver tattoos yanked at the strip on fabric on my leg, tearing the already short, nearly invisible hair straight from my skin.

"Sorry," she said in her high-pitch silly Capital accent, "at least you're not as hairy as some of the others we've had to deal with." She giggles and I fight down the desire to be angry at her, to snap at her about how many of these "others" were in fact dead, and to not speak of them in such way. But somehow I am able to hold my tongue, if only because she was tearing at another strip of fabric from my leg and I had to bite down on my bottom lip again, to keep from crying out.

I try to remember what Finnick told me, to not think about these people as people, to not feel embarrassed with what they are doing to me.

But it's hard, especially when you are completely naked, lying on a table with three very strange people, both in looks and character, working over you as your some kind of plaything or doll. I have a hard enough time being naked with Finn – at first - let alone being comfortable with a bunch of people who are dressing me basically for my death.

I feel completely vulnerable and not in the way that I feel when I'm with Finnick. At least with him, I know that he loves me and will take care of me, these people…

"Last one." Cersie squeals and I brace myself, both against her and the other two prep teams loud annoying voices and for the pain to come.

It comes and then it goes, though my whole body feels sore and tingly. I fight the desire to cross my arms across my chest, to try and cover some part of me, to give me some modesty.

I was greased down with some kind of oil, before being allowed to stand, only for the three insane people to come at me with tweezes, hunting for some hair that they might have missed during the waxing. They seem quite disappointed when they find none and I'm allowed, finally to pull of the rope that I got to wear off and on.

I yanked it on to me, wrapping it firmly around my body. It didn't give much protection from the outside world, but it gave enough to make me feel covered.

"You really are such a pretty thing. Especially now that you look human." Said Sansia, a woman who had purple hair and bright, electric blue eyes – I wasn't sure if that was her natural eye colour or she had them altered – and a black tattoo of flowers on her right cheek.

"Thank you." I said sweetly. "I feel much more human now, thanks to all of you." A lie of course but it made them happy.

"Such pretty hair." Enyia said softly. She was the quietest of the prep team and looked the most normal. Her hair was a fiery red and her eyes were the softest violet colour.

She smiled at me sweetly as she brushed my hair, "and you're eyes… they're like emeralds."

Emeralds? Oh, they're a stone, a gem stone. I've never seen one though, so I'd just have to take her word on it.

I smiled shyly back at her and I felt that maybe she, at least, felt bad about what was going to happen to me in a few days time.

"Right, let's call Eyria." The other two babbled excitedly and I once more forced myself to smile for them.

"Eyria is my older sister." Enyia informed me quietly while the other two went off to call Eyria and we walked into another room, a sitting room where two blue sofas faced each other over a low table. I look out the window – which is really the whole fourth wall of the room that we had just entered - and see that it is late afternoon.

"Oh?"

"Yes. She's very good and she'll take in your…" she smiled apologetically as she waved a hand up and down my body, "desire to be modest." She finished and I felt my cheeks flush crimson.

"I'm just not use to this… any of this. It's a lot…"

"To take in?" She finished for me and I nodded. Enyia looked to be about my age, maybe a year or so older, but she seemed to hold years of wisdom in her violet eyes. I wondered what she had seen, what she had been through to possess such wise eyes.

"My sister will make you look beautiful. More beautiful than you already are and the Capital will love you." she informed and I smiled my first true smile for the day. It was small smile but Enyia seemed to be able to tell that it was real.

Just then the doors of the room open and a pretty, tall young woman walked in.

She had the same fiery hair and violet eyes as Enyia, but I could tell that that was where the resemblance between the two sisters ended. I could tell already that where Enyia was quiet and gentle, this woman walking towards us was loud and meant business.

"Hello, Annie. I'm Eyria, your stylist." Her voice wasn't as high as I had heard my prep team voices, nor was her Capital accent as defined, but it wasn't as soft as Enyia. It was deep and had a husky sound to it, that I know most men, at least the men in District Four would think it was sexy.

"Hello."

"Could you stand up for me? And possibly remove your rope? Only for a moment, if you would please." She added when she saw my face.

With a small sigh, I nod and stood up from the sofa that I had sat down on while I had waited for her to arrive. I remove my rope and let it fall and as I do, I stare up at the ceiling.

Eyria circles me slowly; her eyes I know are taking in every detail of my body. I feel self conscious but I fight back against it.

They're not real people; they're not people at all. Except with these two, they felt like people.

"Enyia." Eyria says after a moment. I hear Enyia stand up from the sofa, "Could you go and get my sketchbook for me, please?"

"Of course." And Enyia left the room.

I felt sad about this; I liked Enyia and wished that she could have stayed.

"You can put your rope back on." Eyria said after a moment and I pulled it back on as fast I can.

"He said you were modest." Eyria said as she sat down on the sofa opposite me. I looked at her puzzled.

"Who said?"

"Oh, your mentor, Finnick Odair." She said his name calmly, almost off-hand, not becoming one bit flustered as I saw most other women become when they are around him or even mention him.

"You spoke with him?" I asked.

"Um hmmm," she said with a nod of her head, "he had some ideas for your costume. He saw the original one and thought you might not like it very much."

"Oh?"

"Don't worry. I've made all the changes that will hopefully make you feel completely comfortable and beautiful while still pleasing the audience."

"Um, thank you."

She smiled.

"You're welcome. I didn't much like the original costume, I must admit. I was quite pleased when Mr Odair gave me a reason to make some changes to it. Mind you though, my partner isn't very happy about it, but then he's always like's dressing the girls a little too… flashy." I gulp and she laughs.

"But that isn't an issue any more. The costume is modest while still giving off the impression of sexiness."

"Thank you." I wasn't sure what else to say.

"Are you hungry?" the rumble of my stomach was her answer and she chuckled, a deep, throaty sound.

She pressed on a button on the side of the table. I gasped as its top splits and from somewhere below rises a second tabletop that holds our lunch. Fish in a creamy yellow sauce, lying on a bed of potatoes and green peas, bread rolls shaped as flowers and for dessert a cake made of chocolate and when broke into it, warm liquid chocolate oozes out.

It all smelled delicious but I ate carefully not wanting to upset my stomach and vomit again. I was getting quite tired of vomiting.

"When are you due?" Eyria asked suddenly. I had noticed that she had been watching me carefully; a sad look in her eyes, but her question threw me off.

"Pardon?"

"Your baby? When is it due?"

I felt myself start to gag on the food that I have just swallowed.

"Baby? What baby?" I gasped, feeling the nausea that I had been trying to keep at bay all day starting to take control.

Eyria looked startled.

"You did not know?"

"Know? Know what?" I was gasping. "There's nothing to know. I mean, there isn't – I'm not…" I trailed off, letting my mind think. I was late for my monthly bleeding, but I've never been regular with it - it's thought to be because of all my swimming - so I never think twice about it when I do miss my bleeding for the month. Why should I? I means, a month without cramps and feeling disgusting. But now… I thought for another moment and realised that I've in fact missed two monthly bleedings and my heart starts to panic.

"How – how can you tell?" I gasped, trying to stay calm.

"Your body is already showing the signs of change, the signs of change that only come when one is pregnant. As a stylist, it's my job to make note of all changes of a human body, including the changes that are made because of pregnancy."

I feel wetness on my cheeks and realise that I am crying.

"I didn't know. I didn't even suspect. I – I." I buried my face into my hands.

"I'm sorry. I'm so very, very sorry. I did not know." Eyria says as she comes to crouch by my side. "If I had known that you didn't know, I would have not said anything, to save you further pain."

"No," I said through my tears, "I'm glad to know, but…"

"No one else knows. Except for maybe my sister, but rest assured she will not tell a soul. Nor will I."

"Thank you." I said thickly, lightly touching my belly as I do so. How was I going to tell Finnick? No, I couldn't, not when I'm about to enter the Games, about to die. It would kill him. I'm sure.

So, don't die. Live for yourself… and for Finnick's baby. Keep his baby alive.

Enyia comes back into the room with Eyria's sketchbook and together they show me the altered sketch of my costume, which just about takes my breath.

"I love it." And the two of them grin.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yes, I know, I'm a terrible person for making Annie pregnant. I don't even know why I did, her being pregnant just sort of ended up being written in this fic, it wasn't originally planned. But you have to admit it does add an extra layer of drama and also, another thing to cause Annie to loose her mind after her games.  
But anyway, hopefully you won't all hate soo much for doing this to poor Annie and stop reading this fic, I just wanted to be different.  
Chapter Six will be up soon-ish. Reviews are much loved.


	6. Chapter Six

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the slight wait with this chapter. I got so involved in writing part 2 of this fic, that I forgot how little of part 1 I have actually posted up, so sorry about that.

So, ok, this chapter is all about the Opening Ceremony. So please enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter Six**

And I do.

I love my costume. It is so beautiful and light, made out of beautiful blue and green material that shimmers as I move.

I turn this way and that in the mirror that I'm standing in front of. The last alterations have just been made and it's only a matter of time before the Opening Ceremony begins.

My opening ceremony costume is really a long dress that has layer upon layers of different green and blue fabrics that make up the skirt, cut to different lengths so that when I move they move and I look like I am wearing the ocean or maybe a river. The point is when I move I feel like I'm in water again and being in water has always made me feel safe.

It's so strange that.

My parents died because of a boating accident, drowning in the ocean because no one got to them in time. So in a sense, I should really be terrified of water and of the ocean, but I'm not.

The ocean, being in water, is the only place I feel safe, like I belong. My father always called me his little fish and my mother and grandmother have said I should have been born a mermaid. When I was a child, I wished and wished that I was. A mermaid, that is.

If I were a mermaid then I could be free, I could swim away from District Four, away from the Capital, away into the ocean and be safe within its waters until the end of my days.

And then I met Finnick.

Finnick.

I ran my hand over my belly, not seeing whatever it was that had clued Eyria in about my condition.

"Oi, you done staring at yourself?" With an irritated sigh I turned to face Merle and his stylist, both of whom have just entered the room that I'm in.

I felt my lips quirk into a small smile at the sight of him, all of him. And there really was a lot of him to see.

What he was wearing was ridiculous. Well what little he was wearing which was basically some heavy gold netting, knot strategically around his waist, covering all that should be covered. He had a blue cloak thrown over his shoulders and he held a gold trident. And he didn't look happy.

His stylist however looks delighted and was babbling away happily. I hadn't thought I would meet anyone more ridiculous than Stansen Flickershade – yes, even after entering the Capital and after meeting my prep team – but this man really puts Stansen to shame.

He was old, fat and ugly but what made him even uglier was that he was a sickening yellow colour. His whole body was this gross yellow, with vibrant blood red hair and black eyes. He was so fat that he had to waddle and he spoke in this high-pitch voice that hurt my ears to listen to him. And when he finally saw me I felt sick to my core.

I've never been looked at the way he looked at me. I can't even think how to describe it, only that it made me want to run, run as fast and as far from him as I possibly could.

"Such a pretty thing." He cooed as he waddled over to me. "Such a pretty thing and Eyria has you all covered up." He shot Eyria an accusing look, which she ignored, but that might only be because she was watching him with a look that said volumes of how much she detested him.

"Now, if I had had you," I cringed away from him, a sick shiver running down my spine as he said that with his high-pitch voice, "I would…"

"Probably be having her wearing only seaweed and mud. Get away from her Janith." I jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of Finnick. And for the first time since I first met him, I actually felt scared of him.

He looked absolutely terrifying as he stormed over to where I was standing, putting himself between Janith and me.

He looked absolutely ready to murder the stylist with his bare hands. And I really doubt anyone in the room would be able to stop him.

"Finnick," Janith said looking up a Finnick with a disgustingly sweet smile, "How are you today? I was just commenting on what a pretty little thing this one is. Pity my design was altered or everyone would see just how pretty a thing she really is."

From where I now stood behind him I could see Finnick's shoulders tensing, his fists clenching at his sides, as if he was fighting back the desire to beat Janith senseless.

"Finnick." I say softly, gently touching his arm and drawing his attention away from the disgusting man and on to me. His eyes did soften some before turning hard once more and he put some distance between us.

I blinked at his back in confusion.

I want to reach out to him but I'm stopped by Eyria and Enyia, who have come over to put the final touches on me.

My hair is hanging down my back in great waves and on top of my head now sits a crown made of coral and shells.

"Beautiful." Eyria says looking pleased while Enyia simply grins and nods. I look over to where Finnick is but he seems to be refusing to look at me.

I feel a pang in my heart but I don't have time to dwell on it or him for we are being whisked down to the bottom level of the Remake Centre, essentially a gigantic stable.

The Opening Ceremony is about to begin.

My stomach churns as I look around at the other tributes who are being loaded into the chariots pulled by teams of four horses. Some tributes are weary of the beautiful creatures while all I want is to give them a pat.

There are very few horses in District Four and they are only own by the very wealthy and most of the time they are kept in their stables, so they are rarely ever seen.

I start to move towards the one closest to me, one of the beautiful pearl grey ones that are attached to our shell and coral decorated chariot. But before I can touch his pearly white mane, I am being pushed back and into the chariot.

"Annie." I look down at Eyria, where she is standing beside our chariot, "I want you to smile and wave to the crowd, ok. Be the complete opposite of Merle. He's going to be silent and looking to the front at all times, a cold man of the ocean, but you. You are the Ocean, beautiful and breathtaking, but completely deadly. Any and all who fall into your waves are doomed. You are the unforgiving Sea beckoning to all to come and meet their doom with your beauty and mystery. Do you understand?"

No, of course I didn't but I force myself to nod.

Eyria gave me a warm smile, wishing me luck before she moved away from the chariot.

I swallow thickly as the opening music starts to play. It's so loud! It probably can be heard all the way to the very edge of the Capital.

Massive doors in front of us slide open, revealing the crowd-lined streets, all screaming and cheering, all making me feel sick again.

The chariots start moving and we all fall into line, District One in the lead and District Twelve bringing up the rear.

"District Four!"

I feel immediately ill as our chariot starts moving. This is nothing like being on a boat… or maybe it's the baby. I briefly touch my belly before remembering what Eyria said about being beautiful but deadly.

I wasn't exactly sure how I was suppose to do that, but I forced myself to smile, almost impishly at the screaming crowd, a smile that I wear when I'm being cheeky or have done something mischievous.

I wave to them and blow a couple of kisses at them which only causes the crowd to scream even more loudly. The noise was almost deafening.

I don't pay any attention to anything else but them, the crowd. I smile and wave to them, blow them kisses and in return they're screaming my name and throwing me flowers.

I catch one, a beautiful white rose and clutch it tightly in my hand and blow a kiss in the general direction that it has been thrown from.

We enter the City Circle and the twelve chariots circle around it once before filling the loop of the circle. Surrounding the circle are buildings and every one of those buildings windows are packed with the most prestigious citizens of the Capital.

The chariots do another loop of the City Circle before we all come to a halt out front of Presidents Snow's mansion.

The President, I was surprised to see, was in fact a rather small, thin man with hair as white as the pearls that we harvest back in District Four.

I had always imagined him, from what I've heard and seen of him to be quite a large and imposing man, but he wasn't. He looked more like a kindly grandfather than someone who reigned so much pain and terror over a country.

He smiles warmly at all of us before giving the official welcoming speech from the balcony that he is standing on above us.

I don't pay much attention to his speech; instead I watch the huge screens that are set up on either side of the balcony, watching as the pictures on the screens cut away from Snow to each of the Tributes Chariot. I see myself and can't help but think that I really do look like some Ocean Goddess or Sprite.

Beautiful but terrible, all should worship me while always fearing my uncontrollable wrath. It's an impressive image, but it isn't me, but then, I suppose that is the point.

Once the cameras stop focusing on me and Merle and move on to the other tributes, I lightly touch my belly again. The nausea has gone now that we've stopped moving.

I press lightly against my belly and noticed that yes, there is a slight lump forming between my hips. I jerk my hand away and I feel panic start to form in my chest but I force it back for we are moving again and the nausea has returned.

We parade around the circle one last time before disappearing in the Training Centre. As soon as the doors are closed behind us, I'm all but jumping from the chariot.

"What are you? Motion sick or something?" Merle asked with a snort as he watched me lean heavily against our chariot, trying to control my urge to be sick.

I don't have much to time to gain control over my nausea for I'm engulfed by my prep team who are babbling incoherent praises.

I look around and see that many tributes are staring at us, or rather at me. Some look thoughtful while most look at me like I'm some shiny object that needs to be smashed. I got that very distinct impression from the girl from District One who was all but glaring knives at me.

I'm saved by the arrival of Eyria who starts moving us towards the elevators that will take us to any floor in the Training Centre Tower. Of course, we'll only ever be going to one floor, our floor during our stay here.

I let her lead me to it, feeling relieved once I'm inside, to be away from all the other tributes, well almost all.

Merle is loudly congratulating himself with his prep team as we speed through the levels to the fourth floor.

I wished the ride was longer. The elevators walls are made out of crystal, meaning that you can watch people on the ground floor shrink to size of mud crabs as you shoot through the air. It was breathtaking and exhilarating and oddly enough didn't make me feel nauseous at all.

I wanted to ask if we could ride it again, but I didn't want to tempt fate and bring back my nausea. Also I don't think I could stand Merle's teasing.

We reached our floor and if I thought that the train was extravagant, it was nothing compared the room that I had just stepped into.

Merle whistled behind me as he took in the space that was meant to be a living room – which was the size of at least three classrooms back home.

"Nice." He said and he looked truly impressed.

I nodded my head slowly before moving cautiously further into the room.

"Nothing's going to bite you." I jump before turning around to meet Finnick – who had come up behind me - with a grin, which he didn't return.

Fine then, be like that, I thought before stalking further into the room only to be swept into the arms of Grandma, who was beside herself with glee.

"You were beautiful." She whispered as she hugged me close.

"Thanks, Grandma." I said with a tired smile and she pattered my shoulder gently.

"Come, let's get you into a nice warm bath before dinner time." She said as she took hold of my hand and started leading me down a corridor, opening a door and showing me inside.

My room, or quarters, were also huge, like the living room. They had all the trimming that my room back in the train had, plus more.

Grandma showed me how to work the automatic gadgets that I know I won't have the time to test them all. The shower and bath alone have whole panels of more than a hundred options for you to choose from, water temperature, water pressure, all different smelling soaps, shampoos, scents and oils and massaging sponges.

My grandmother ran me a nice warm bath, setting the pressure so that the water bubbles up and when I slide into it; it feels like the water is simply bubbling all the tension out of my body.

"Wow." I whisper, closing my eyes as Grandma sits on the edge of the bath tub –which is huge, like everything else in this place – and rubbing shampoo into my hair and helping to rub off all the blue, green and sliver paint off my body.

"The Capital does have some perks. Their baths are one of them." Grandma said and I laughed softly.

"Grandma," I said after a couple of moments of silence.

"Hmmm?"

"Um, I have to tell you something." I notice her eyes widen slightly but she said nothing while I informed her that I was apparently pregnant.

She sighed heavily once I was done.

"I feared as much." She said softly as she stroked my face gently.

"You did?"

"Dear one, you may not have noticed, but I have. Your change in appetite, you're sudden obsession with oysters, being ill in the morning. I've suspected for a few weeks now, but," she shook her head.

"I was hoping that I was wrong, but clearly…"

"You're not." I finished for her and slid further down into the bubbling bath.

"What do I do?" I whispered.

"Win."

"Grandma, I…" she cut me off with a wave of her hand.

"Win and come home. Win for your baby."

"But…"

"Annie."

I close my eyes and nod.

"I want to win." I whisper. "I want to win and have this baby. I want to come home and…" I lightly touch the lump between my hips. How did I miss it before now?

"I know."

"I don't know how though." I whisper desperately.

"We'll figure something out. I promise you Annie, you and your baby will come home." I nod before sighing.

"How am I going to tell F…" my grandmother's hand suddenly came to be pressing against my lips, her eyes wide and she shook her head.

"Wha…?" but she simply shook her head again and I fell silent. Though I'm fairly certain that the bathroom isn't bugged, you still have no idea who might be listening in.

"Come on, up you get." Grandma said as she held out a towel for me and I hopped out of the bath.

"Do you think the room is…" I started to whispered but Grandma shrugged.

"No way to tell for sure."

"But if it is, then they'll know…"

"They probably know already," she whispered back into my ear as we walked back into my room and she moves for my huge wardrobe, "but what's important now, is to keep them from knowing who the father is. If they were to find out, then you're life and the baby's life will be in even greater danger than they are already."

"Ok." I mutter hugging the towel close to me while my Grandmother picked out an outfit for me. She selected a soft green dress that hung loosely to my form, while the sleeves hugged my arms closely. It fell just below my knees.

"Pretty." I comment softly before I looked out the window, playing with the remote that will zoom in and out on different parts of the city.

"Dinner Time!" Stansen sings out from behind my closed door.

Good. I was starving.

Grandma quickly braids my hair down my back before we both head back to the living room, where all the other Victors are assembled. They seem to be much more enthusiastic towards me than they previously had, maybe not seeing me as such a failure and waste of their time. They all greeted me warmly, telling me that I was marvellous and so on.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Merle shooting me dirty looks. I wanted to shoot him back a triumphant grin, like all the ones that he's been shooting at me for the past day – has it really been only a day? – but I can't find the energy or the malice to do so.

Instead I quietly accept their praise before moving for the table. It's only when I'm sitting down do I notice that Finnick isn't present.

I open my mouth to ask where he is, when I'm lightly but firmly elbowed in the side by one of our female victors.

She shakes her head as she sits down beside me. I don't know how she knew or suspected that I was going to ask about Finnick – maybe she saw me looking around and since Finnick is the only person missing from our group, she simply guessed it was him.

We all sit down for dinner – all except Finnick, though at the moment I'm not sure if I really want to see him, what with the way he's been treating me today and because of the baby – and I quickly find out that dinner time isn't really about food. Rather it about planning out our strategies and since now I've made such a splash with the Capital, everyone is determined that I have one, while before they had been happy enough to just forget me in the shadows.

I listen in on all the advice that is thrown my way, though I don't absorb even half of it, being too busy eating and at the same time trying not to look at or think about the Avoxs who are serving us.

I've never met an Avox before, for obvious reasons, but I've heard about them often enough from Grandma and Finnick. They don't go into too much detail about them, only that they are people who committed a crime; a terrible, traitorous crime against the Capital and in punishment for their crime, they have their tongue cut out so that they can no longer speak and are forced to serve others.

The one who is refilling my glass with an orange coloured drink – known as orange juice. Original I know, but apparently there is a fruit called Orange, though I've never seen it before – is a young man of maybe twenty years. He looks completely harmless and even gives me a small smile when I mouth thank you at him – you're not allowed to speak to Avox unless you are giving them an order – and I can't help but wonder what terrible thing he did against the Capital for him to be in this situation. I'll probably never know.

I eat until I'm basically fit to burst. Everyone wants to watch the recap of the Opening Ceremony that will start showing any moment, but I am too exhausted to sit through the two hour long event – even though the Opening Ceremony itself was only something like half an hour all up, the recap are two due to the commentators talking about each of the districts different costumes and clips of reporters talking to different stylists and Mentors about different tributes, generally the more popular tributes, are shown – so I simply wished everyone goodnight, informing them that I was heading for bed, since I wanted to wake up somewhat refreshed for Training tomorrow.

My grandmother gave me a quick hug and I was patted on the back by several of the Victors before I head off to my room.

I changed into a pair of loose pants and shirt, brushed my teeth before sitting down on my bed. I picked up the white rose that had been thrown to me during the Opening Ceremony, turning it slowly over in my hands.

It really was beautiful. I had only ever seen a couple of roses in my life but this one far surpassed them in beauty.

"So bea… ouch." My finger was pricked on one of the few thrones that stuck out from the rose's stork.

"Ow," I waved my fingers about for a moment, before bringing it to my mouth to suck on, rolling my eyes at my own weakness. Unbelievable. How was I going to cope with the Games when I was wincing over a prick to my finger from a simple flower.

I looked back down at the rose and feel immediately ill.

Drops of my blood have fallen onto the white petals, staining them red. A pure white rose, stained with my blood.

I clamped a hand to my mouth and bolted to the bathroom, for the toilet, letting the rose fall to the floor without a thought about it.

Even though every instinct was telling me to be sick, I forced the desire back. I couldn't throw up every time I saw blood, because I'll be seeing a lot of it during the games, and I can't throw up because of it. I will appear weak and other tributes will use it as an advantage over me. I have to be stronger than this or I really will lose.

Once I'm sure that I'm not going to be sick, I stand up and wash my mouth out at the sink, gulping down water to hopefully settle down my stomach.

I walk back into my room, gingerly picking up the tarnished rose as I do so, dumping it into the disposal unit in the bathroom before crawling into the large, warm bed.

I'm asleep in moments.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Author's Note:** Wow, two chapters in one day. And this chapter is a fairly long one. It's the first day of Training and a lot happens. You'll get to meet a couple of important characters in this chapters, mainly the Careers, though I am introducing some other Tributes into this chapter, though I don't tell you all their name, but don't go forgetting about them, they might be end up being important in Part 2 and 3 of this fic.

Anyway, please enjoy and any thoughts that you have about this fic, let me know, I'd love to hear them.

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

I dreamed of many strange things during the night, all bright and colourful, swirling shapes and images, but nothing was clear to me or made any sense when I woke up the next morning. And I was grateful for that. I didn't want to remember my dreams from the previous night, the feelings that they left with me when I woke up was bad enough as it was.

I rolled out of bed, taking a moment to realise that for the first time, in a long, _long_ time, I had slept alone. It was a strange feeling waking up and not being in Finnick's arms, being held close to his chest. It was strange not waking up with him by my side. I didn't like it. Not one bit.

I went and took a shower, hoping that the running lukewarm water would wash all the bad feelings and sadness away, before getting dressed in the clothes that had been set out for me some time during the previous night.

The outfit consisted of comfortable black trousers, with black lace up boots and a black shirt with red and grey short sleeves, the number '**4**' printed on each shoulder and on the back of it.

With a thick feeling my throat, I pulled on the clothes, pulling my hair into its normal high tail before heading out to breakfast.

There are a few people already eating at the long table in the dining room, my grandmother being one of them. She is half way through her morning porridge when she looks up to see me enter the room. Her face pales some and she seems to have lost her appetite as she pushed her bowl away from her.

"Morning Grandma." I say as I kiss her cheek as I pass her to get some breakfast from the long bench that is set up with all sorts of different types' breakfast food, off to the side of the room, the young Avox man from last night is standing to attention by it.

He gave me the all clear to serve myself, which I did with great vigour. I don't remember when I had felt so hungry, and I load my plate up to accommodate my hunger. I knew that I would probably regret this huge meal later on but at the moment, I really couldn't care less.

My grandmother raised an eyebrow at my loaded plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, grilled fish and roasted tomato as well as a bowl of fruit, but said nothing and everyone else at the table simply said I was doing the smart thing by eating as much as I was, build up some reserves for the games as I was such a skinny, lanky thing, I needed all the fat on me as I could get.

I ignored much of what they said, simply focusing on eating and sating my huge hunger and oddly enough when I was done, I didn't feel at all queasy or upset in the stomach at all.

A real improvement I must say.

Others start to filter in, some greeting us with good mornings, other simply grunted and headed straight for the coffee.

Finnick was one of the last people to come and join us, along with Merle who looks like he's tried to comb his hair with a piece of coral. He's dressed in the same uniform as me, only it looks far more impressive on him than it does on me.

He grunts a morning to everyone before flopping down into a spare seat, placed his head on his folded arms on the table and went back, apparently, to sleep. Not a morning person, obviously.

I try to catch Finnick's eye but he seems to be insisted on ignoring my very existence.

I feel anger bubble up in my chest but somehow manage to keep myself from exploding, if only to keep myself from exposing some stuff that I'd much rather keep to myself. For example the existence of the baby. His baby.

Jerk.

I slunk down in my chair. I wanted to kick him, or at least get some explanation as to why he was ignoring me like this.

I feel a gentle hand being placed on my shoulder. My grandmother gives me a sympathetic look.

"I'll talk to him." She told me in a low voice.

"Don't tell him…." She shook her head.

"Not mine to tell. But I will talk to him."

I smiled at her in relief, but I still felt miserable from Finnick's lack of… anything. Him being angry at me would be better than this!

"So," I'm dragged momentarily out of my misery by Marlin who is sitting at the end of the table, looking back at Merle and me – Merle had to be kicked awake – rubbing his hands together, "first day of training. Possibly the most important day of training that you'll have. This is the day that you make your impression, your first impression upon the other tributes about what you can do. You already stand out because you're from District Four and you were a big splash last night," he gave me a wink and I felt my cheeks turn red. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Finnick butcher a piece of sausage brutally with his fork, "but today is the day that you make sure that you shine, the day you make them know just how much of a winner you are. Understand."

Merle showed his understanding with a lazy smirk while I just nodded weakly. I wasn't sure how I was going to do that, show everyone that I was a threat, that I was worth being noticed. Wouldn't it actually be smarter to fly under the radar, to be forgettable? Oh, wait we're a Career District, flying under the radar is not in our nature. We stand out and we stand out hard.

"Now, do you want to be trained together or separately?" Marlin asked. I try not to snort into my orange juice.

Oh yes, Merle would just love to train with me. Clearly it was obvious to all what we both wanted since Marlin gave a nod and started asking who wanted to take me and who wanted to mentor Merle.

I wasn't overly surprised when most of them wanted to mentor Merle. I mean, even now, even after I was the bigger splash out of the two of us last night at the Opening Ceremony, out of the two of us, he still has the higher chance of surviving the Games than I do.

"I'll take her." I jumped when he spoke. He had been so quiet, besides from the murdering of his sausage that I had almost forgotten he was even present at the table. Almost, but not quite. Somehow, something internally always has me aware of him, always makes sure that I noticed him, notice every little thing that he does out of the corner of my eye.

I can see he isn't happy, like his offering to mentor me sort of slipped out or something. The little bubble of hope that I had felt when he offered to be my mentor burst when I saw his face or rather the side of it. He still wasn't looking at me.

"I will too." Grandma said suddenly, causing me to jump.

"But you're retired." I said and I wasn't the only one who spluttered either.

She shrugged and took a sip of her tea.

"Are you sure Mags?"Marlin asked gently. My grandmother gave him a warning look.

"I mentored both my children and I will mentor Annie." She said firmly and that was that. No one argued with my grandmother when she uses that tone of voice.

I sat back feeling a little overwhelmed. I might not have had mentors fighting over me, but somehow I've managed to land myself with two of the best.

Merle seems to have come to the same conclusion since he was now giving me looks that could sharpen knives.

I shrank a little in my chair again.

* * *

"Grandma," I said when ten o'clock came rolling around and it was almost time for Merle and I to head down to the training rooms that make up the bottom level of our building. Grandma and I were sitting in my room, waiting for the time to pass.

"Hmmm?"

"Are you sure about this? Mentoring me?"

"Of course, why would I not be?"

"Well, because I'm family for one." She looks up at me and touches my cheek.

"Exactly," she says, "and family protect each other. I've already lost a son and daughter to these games. I won't lose my grandchildren to them too." Grandchildren; the baby and me.

She looks so fierce and determined that I remember just how formidable a Victor/Mentor she is. She, out of all the Victors, has mentored more of our tributes to victory than anyone else. She is a legend, both here in the Capital and back in District Four, as well as, I'm sure, all around Panem.

"Thanks Grandma." I hug her and she hugs me close.

"Now the first bit of advice that I give as your official mentor is this; Forget everything that Marlin said this morning."I blink at her in surprise, but she held up her hand, motioning for me to not interrupt, "What he said might be true for others, for people who really are Careers who want to be allies with other Careers, but it's not true for you. You are a fast runner and a fantastic swimmer and I want you to keep these things to yourself. It's a pity that Merle knows these talents because if he allies himself with the Careers and we both know that will happen, he will most likely tell them all that he knows about you, either to get you on their side as an asset or to…"

"To use what he knows to find a way to kill me." I nodded and she pats my hand.

"Yes, that. But you have other talents, talents that he doesn't know about." I frown at her. What? She smiles slyly, "you've grown up in the Victor's Village, you've live your whole life with one of the eldest victors that Panem can boast. This means you have an advantage that few have ever had. Of course, it is also a disadvantage, but," she waved her hand, "that is not the point here. The point here is, that even though you haven't realised it or noticed it, I have been training you from a little girl for these games, in subtle ways. I've told you survival stories of tributes that I know and have mentored. I've taught you how to fish and how to fend for yourself, even in times when food was plentiful. I've taught you how to make a fire and how to make a fishing hook out of nearly anything that you might come across."I smiled at that. My grandmother, the Queen of Fishing Hooks, "I've shown you want plants are good and which ones are deadly in our district. I've been training you since the moment you could walk and I had your father throw you into the deep end of the rock pools so that you would learn to swim by instinct." She smiled while I pulled a face at that memory.

"Annie, you've had the benefit of growing up with a Victor and being taught skills that only a Victor can teach. You are not as unprepared for this as you might think. You have all the skills that you need to play these games smart and to win."

"I still feel…"

"And you will continue to feel this way until you're in that terrible arena, and you're life depends on the knowledge I've been passing down to you all these years. It will then, that I am sure you will feel more confident in yourself. It will be then that you will feel prepared."

"If you say so." I still felt doubtful.

"I do. You'll be surprised how far a little knowledge will take you. Speaking of which, build on your knowledge during these next three days. Build on what you know, learn to tie knots for snares, learn about different plants, but also, I want you to test out the weapons. Test them all; learn the basics of them all. If you find one in particular that you like to use, good, but I want you to learn how to use as many as possible, as well as learn as many survival skills as you possibly can."

"Busy three days then, huh?"

"Very busy."

* * *

Merle and I were one of the first to arrive in the Training Centre, only being beaten by One and Two – what a surprise - who were watching us with interest as we came to stand by them in front of the head trainer, a tall athletic woman known as Atala.

"Hi there." The tall gorgeous blonde boy from District One greeted the moment Merle and I arrived.

"Hi." Merle and I replied. I noticed that for the first time since we had been in these Games that Merle seemed to be unsure of himself. He looked calm outwardly but I could see from where I stood by his side that he's fists were clenched tightly by his sides.

"I'm Jeopardy and this is my sister Serendipity." The blonde boy continued, gesturing to the beautiful girl standing next to him, the one who had glared knives at me last night after the Opening Ceremony.

I fought to keep my face neutral. Jeopardy and Serendipity? What were their parents thinking?

"And those two are Cole and Jade." He added jabbing his thumb in District Two's direction. The two of them sneered back at us. Right… nice to meet you two too.

"I'm Merle and this one's Annie." Merle introduced us and I fought the desire to kick him in the shins. This one?

After the introductions were over, we stood together awkwardly.

"I loved your dress." Serendipity said suddenly to me, causing me to jump slightly at the sudden break in the awkward silence.

"Um, thank you." I replied, unsure what was going on or what she was actually aiming at.

"It was absolutely beautiful. I was so jealous. Wasn't I Jep?" she nudged her brother, who nodded his head seriously.

"I was worried that she might try to rip it from your lovely back." He said and I cringed slightly at the hidden meaning.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't. My Stylist would have had my skin if I allowed anything to happen to it." I replied with a forced smile. Serendipity laughed girlishly and swatted my arm playfully. A playful swat that I was going to get a bruise from later.

I kept my face cool, even though my flesh was stinging and simply continued to smile at her, which seemed to catch her a little off guard.

She glanced at her brother who shrugged.

Thankfully more tributes started to arrive after that, though my heart sunk when I saw most of them. Just about half of them were younger than I was and the rest were all bigger than me.

When we were all present we all formed a circle around Atala, who immediately begins to explain the training schedule to us.

She pointed out each of the different stations, the survival skills, hand-to-hand combat station, fencing and the knot tying station. I grinned when I saw that station. We were, of course, forbidden to fight with one another that if we wanted to practice fighting anyone there were assistants around that we could practise with.

As soon as we were dismissed by Atala, I immediately broke away from Merle and the other Careers and started heading for one of the survival stations, while they immediately headed over to the weapons, all five of them handling their chosen weapon with ease.

I swallow thickly and immediately start asking the trainer of the edible plants stations questions.

I stay there for an hour. I know a few things, but after listening to the trainer, I realise that really, I know absolutely nothing, so I pay special attention when she shows me and a couple of other tributes the subtle differences between blueberries and nightlock. Nightlock is apparently a real killer in these games.

"We have these at home." A very small voice said from beside me. I look sideways and then down at the tiny girl who is sitting next to me. Her hair is thick and as black as night and falls in a complete mess from her head down her shoulders to almost her waist. Her skin is an olive shade and her eyes are grey.

I've never seen grey eyes before, they're pretty. She's pretty. A pretty twelve year old.

"Where's home?" I asked companionably as I took the rest of her in. She was tiny and looked like she had never had a proper meal in all her life.

"The Seam." I look at her blankly and her olive cheeks darken. "I mean, District Twelve."

"Ah." Was all I could think to say.

"Where's home?" she asks me and I can't help but smile.

"District Four." I feel her stiffen slightly beside me and I mentally curse. I've sacred her off now.

"You mean," She breathed, "you've seen the ocean?" the way she said 'ocean' caught me off guard, she said it was so much longing.

"Um, yes. I live right by it." her pretty grey eyes widen and she grins brightly, making me notice that she has recently lost a couple of her baby teeth. I felt my stomach churn a little. She wouldn't live to see her adult teeth to come through.

"That must be…" she trailed off, unable to think of a word to describe how it must be.

"It is fairly wonderful. It's very pretty and full of life." I went on to describe the ocean to her and afterwards she described the woods that surround District Twelve. She smiles secretively to me as she does so, letting me know that she was letting me in on a secret.

I'm not frustrated or annoyed when Willow – that was her name – followed me to the knot-tying station. In fact, I was glad for the company, especially when I happened to look over to where the Careers were still showing off to the rest of us by the weapons stations and I catch Merle's eyes and he shakes his head at me, mouthing 'you are so dead', before turning away again.

The rope-tying was simple for me and I pass with flying colours. As does little Willow, who shows me a snare that will catch a whole rope of rabbits.

"My brother showed me how." She explained but didn't elaborate more. In return, I showed her some simple knots that might help her out if she's in a pinch.

We part ways after that, her heading over to the camouflage stations while I, hesitantly, walk over to one of the weapon stations.

"Finally decided to be smart huh?" Merle sneered at me as I awkwardly lifted up a sword, immediately hating the cold steel and the weight of it.

"There's more to surviving these games than mere brute strength." I mutter back at him, as I tried to get a better grip on the sword. It's too heavy!

Though, at least I'm not the only one having trouble, but I'm the only "career" who is. The others are wielding the damn things as if they are simply an extension of their arms.

The Trainer for the swords comes over to me and gestures for me to join the small group of tributes he's assemble together to give a lesson to. My ears burn at the laughter from the other Careers as I join the other tributes in my first ever fencing lesson.

I hated every moment of it.

And I wasn't the only one. The boys from Three and Ten both collapse from exhaustion after our first session and the boy from Eleven simply looks down at his blade with disgust.

"I hate this." I heard the boy from Ten mutter to the boy from Three as they both return their swords to the shelf. The boy from Three just nods and the two of them head for the edible plants station.

I continue to hang around by the weapons stations but I'm grateful for when lunch time comes. When I enter the dinning room that is off to the side of the training rooms, I'm not surprised when I look down to my side and see that Willow is walking with me. We eat together, along with her District partner, a quiet fifteen year old boy, also from an area of District Twelve known as the Seam.

"He's my brother's best friend," Willow explains as she introduces me to the boy. "Ronan, say Hi."

"Hi." He replies into his plate, before starting eating again. The two of them eat as if they've never seen food before. But from what I've heard of Twelve and seeing how thin these two are, I can't fault them for not using their knives and forks and I glare at the attendants who shake their heads in disgust at the two of them.

"He tried to volunteer for me." I jumped when Ronan spoke. Willow has left our table to get her fourth helping of fruit and chocolate cake and we are alone.

"Pardon?"

"He, Wills brother, tried to volunteer for me after my name was called and Willow was already up on stage."

"Oh." I said not sure where this was going.

"I didn't let him though."

"Why?"

He shrugged, "his family has already lost one kid to these games and now they're going to lose Will. If Jarred had volunteered for me, than they would have lost both their kids. But since I didn't let him, then they might not lose their last two kids."

"You're going to..." I trailed off.

"Die, to protect her." he nodded, "yup."

"But… what about _your_ family?"

"Community house." He said simply and I nodded. He had no family. Or rather he did and that was why he was here. He had a family that he wanted to protect.

"That's really…"

He shrugged, not letting me finish, as Willow had just returned with her bowl of fruit and chocolate cake.

I looked at the two, before looking away.

This was so wrong. These Games…

* * *

"You know that they're laughing at you, right?" the husky voice of Eleven said from behind me as I raised a spear over my shoulder, trying to throw it at the life size dummy that is several metres away from me.

"I know." I grumbled back, not even bothering to look in their direction; their laughter was loud enough as it was.

"Try to relax." The trainer was saying to me over the laughter, "you're too tense and you're over-thinking and that's why you keep missing."

"Or rather," Eleven muttered from behind me, "let all your anger and frustration towards them vent out into the spear, so that when you throw it, you see the dummy as one of them. Bet you won't miss then."

I look over my shoulder at him and he quirks a dark eyebrow at me.

I took a deep breath and did as he said, the laughter seem to grow louder in my ears and I felt my anger towards them start to bubble within me.

And then it died away and I sighed.

"I can't." I mutter as I lowered the spear.

"You can, just try." The trainer insisted. "You come from a fishing district, don't you?" I shoot him a look, which he simply returned with a look that read 'well then'.

Breathing heavily through my nose, I lifted the spear again and looked at the dummy, this time forcing myself to see a fish instead.

It's a fish. It's a fish. Not a person, a fish, a fish that you'll be taking home to Grandma and Finnick. It's a fish. Just a fish. It's a…

"Woah." The laughter has stopped.

I hadn't realised that while I was chanting my mantra, I had thrown the spear. I hadn't hit the dummy that I had originally been aiming for, the one that was just a couple of metres away from me, no, I hit the one at the very far end of the room, right in the middle of its chest, making me look way better than I actually am.

I glanced over my shoulder at the Careers, slightly satisfied when I saw that both Jeopardy and Serendipity mouths were hanging open in disbelief. Cole looked impressed while Merle looked dumbfounded. Jade looked simply calculating.

"Was that just luck or are you really that good?" Eleven asked with a chuckle.

"Let's see, shall we." I said and I picked up another spear. And using the same technique as last time, I threw the spear and another and another. Each one hit the furthest dummy, one even hit the dummy right in it's forehead before it fell to the floor with a ringing clank.

I felt that was enough spear throwing for the day after that and I darted off back to the knot-tying station – it gave me a sense of security, I guess – trying to ignore all the looks that were following me as I went.

* * *

"So how was training?"

"Well Annie's sign herself up as a Babysitter."

"Annie!" I didn't even bother lifting my head up from the dining table. I ached all over and all I wanted to do was go to bed, I didn't want to be sitting here being criticised for not being a blood-thirsty killer.

"Shut Merle." I grumbled into my arms. I don't remember aching this bad since my first real swimming meet and that was when I was eight.

"Well, it's true."

"Uh huh and how far can you throw a spear?" I snapped lifting my head from my arms and glared at him. He prominently shut up at that, looking slightly grumpy.

After my display of spear throwing, the rest of the Careers had gone to take a shot at it, trying to prove that they too were just as good as I was… except that they weren't. None of them could hit the furthest dummy that I had hit multiple times in a row.

"What?"Marlin asked. He was looking between us with an expecting expression. I rolled my eyes.

"I hit the furthest dummy in the room with a spear. And he's cranky because he kept missing it or rather, the spear kept falling short."

"Shut up. At least I can do more than simply throw a spear."

"Oh yeah? What's the difference between Nightlock and blueberries? Would you be able to tell one apart from the other? Because did you know that Nightlock is one of the biggest killers in these games for idiots like you who think they're eating blueberries but instead are ingesting poison."

Merle opened his mouth to retaliate.

"ENOUGH!" Marlin yelled

"What's going on?" my grandmother had just entered the dining room with several other mentors following behind her, including Finnick. All them wearing varying looks of concern.

"You mean, besides these two trying to ripe out each other's throats?" Marlin asked with a grim smile as he glared at Merle and me.

"She's being stupid." Merle started.

"I am not. I'm being smart. You're the one being stupid." I snapped back. I felt extremely childish but after a day of being laugh at and being exposed to the fact that more than half of us won't survive the first day in the arena, I was in a pretty foul mood.

"I'm stupid? Hey, I'm not one whose got a twelve year old following me around like a little shadow."

"Willow's smart." I snapped, "She knows her plants and she can make snares. She knows more about surviving in harsh situations than you or I do."

"Is this the kid from Twelve?""One of the mentors asked.

I nodded.

"Annie." I heard several groan.

"What? She's smart. She taught me how to create a snare that will trap and kill a whole rope of rabbits. How is that not a good thing."

"Because if you become allies with her, she'll probably just slow you down and make you more vulnerable." Marlin said pinching his nose. I blink at him.

"Who said I was allies with her? She already has an alliances with her district partner, I was just talking to her because she happen to be sitting next to me at the edible plants station."

"Oh…"

"But you haven't made much of an attempt to ally yourself with the tributes from One and Two." Marlin pointed out and I rolled my eyes.

"Why would I go and ally myself with a group of people who will be most likely the ones who will be stabbing me in the back? They're all a bunch of sociopaths" I grumbled, sliding down in my chair so that my nose is now level with the table edge.

I heard a couple of snorts of laughter.

"Hey."Merle started.

"Well, it's true, there's no point denying it."

"Well, Annie," Marlin was looking completely exasperated with me know, "who do you want to become allies with?"

"Myself?"

"Annie."

"I don't know. The guy from Eleven? I spoke with him during weapons training."

"Anyone else?" I would have liked to have said Willow and Ranon but I knew I would just be pushing my luck so I simply shook my head.

"It's only the first day." Grandma said suddenly from behind me, her hand coming to rest on my shoulder.

Marlin nodded, shooting one more exasperated look in my direction before heading over to an Avox, saying that he'd like for dinner to be served shortly.

Grandma sat down beside me, gently rubbing my sore shoulders as I came to once more resting my arms and head upon the dining table.

"I'm still not helping myself, am I?" I asked her after a moment.

"Maybe not with Marlin, but you have caught the interest of the Gamemakers from what I've heard." I lifted my head from my arms and looked at her in surprised.

"Really?"

"Apparently." She tucked a stray hair behind my ear. I sighed heavily.

"I shouldn't have made friends with Willow." I mumbled.

"Hmmm, why?"

"Because even though she is so smart and quick, she's still only twelve and even with Ranon, her district partner, her chances of winning are…"

"Slim?"

"Uh huh." My head came to rest upon my folded arms again. I felt a tear roll down my cheek, but I brushed it away before anyone saw it.

Throughout dinner Merle and I are drilled about what we've learnt today. Merle hasn't learnt a lot since he remain around the weapons stations for all of the day and he knew a great deal about his strength with certain weapons already, he was simply showing off what he knew to the other Careers.

Which personally, I think is rather stupid, as he's now got nothing up his sleeve for when things go sour between him and them. They'll now know all his strengths and weaknesses while I'm sure he won't know all of theirs. The only thing that they've shown not shining at is spear throwing and that was only for distance. Close up and they've basically impaled the dummy with the spear.

When it's my turn to tell of what I've learnt today, I seem to appease Marlin some. While I might not shine with a lot of the weapons, I was at least proving that I wouldn't starve after the first couple of days. Also I now know how to track water, which is more than I can say for Merle who looked blank when I spoke about it.

"See, the survival stations aren't as stupid or weak as they seem." I tell him somewhat tartly. He pulls a face at me, but I noticed he looks a little worried, so I take pity on him and tell him what to do to check if there is any water, say a stream, nearby

Surprisingly, he listens to me carefully, several times repeating what I've said so that it will sink better into his brain.

"See, more of this and less fighting and you two might actually get somewhere." Marlin said. Both Merle and I pull faces at him, causing several at our table to laugh.

"Or not." He conceded. "Well it appears, despite everything," he shot me a look, "you two seem to be doing fine. Though, I will say this, Merle," Merle looked up from his plate, "I want you to check out the Survival stations tomorrow. Annie's right, they're not stupid or weak and what you learn there could just save your life. And Annie, I want you to keep working on getting better with weapons. You seem fine with a spear, with the distance aspect of it at least, but I want you to learn to put in more force when you use it. Being able to throw a far distance is fine when the target is moving and you want to slow them down, but when they're up close, a shallow wound will only anger them. You need to learn to make your throw count. Understand?" I simply nod, staring down at my plate, not really seeing the food that was left on it.

I head for bed almost immediately after Dinner. The moment Finnick disappeared from the table – he was still not speaking or even looking at me – I lost all interest in the conversations around me and was suddenly deathly tired.

"I'm going to bed." I tell Grandma who looks up at me with a concern look. "I'm fine, just tired."

She nodded and wished me goodnight. I say good night to everyone else and head for my room.

I take a shower because even though I had one as soon as I got back from training, I still felt gross, so I took another.

Plus the water just made me feel better, loosing up my tense muscles and soothing the nausea that the baby inside of me was causing. The baby had been good for most of today, but this evening it was making my insides squirm.

I rubbed my belly gently before I stepped out of the warm stream of water, grabbing a towel and wrapped it around my chest.

I allowed my body to be blown dry by the heaters, placing my hand upon a box that sent a current through my scalp, drying, untangling and parting my hair. I leave my hand there for longer than I had previously and watched in the mirror as my usually wavy hair became completely straight, a glossy curtain.

I wondered absently what Finnick would think of me with straight hair before remembering he wasn't talking to me – for some reason – and he was off doing things that, as he's girlfriend – was I still? – I didn't really want to think about.

I stomped out of the bathroom, feeling quite peeved and sad, though I wouldn't admit it if anyone asked me, and pulled on a soft pair of pyjamas and crawled into the bed.

I lay there for awhile, unable to sleep, too busy thinking over things. Mainly about Finnick and his sudden cold attitude towards me or rather lack of any kind of attitude towards me.

I sniffed and rubbed my nose.

I wouldn't cry. I refused!

I somehow managed to keep from crying but I fell asleep with a headache and feeling like I had a heavy weight on my chest.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Told you it was a long chapter and quite bit happens in it and you meet a lot of new characters. Just don't forget about them, even the ones I haven't named and don't seem important, they might just end up surprising you... or I might just be pulling your leg and I never mention them ever again, lol.  
And yeah, about the uniforms that they're wearing, obviously I took the idea from the movie even though I know in the book the tributes during training days got to wear whatever they wanted but I like the Training Uniforms and I think it makes sense for them to be worn during the training sessions.

Thank you to all the reviews, favourites and alerts so far. I didn't realise that there were so many. For some reason I wasn't informed about certain reviews when they were posted, so I will now check and answer any questions that may have been asked.

Once again thanks and chapter 8 will be posted up soon.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Author's Note:** Hello Everyone. Here is Chapter 8. Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

I woke up feeling terrible. I felt ill and I didn't want to move. I just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. So I did.

I fell back to sleep only to be woken – what felt like only moments later - by the sound of knocking on my door.

"Annie?" It was Grandma. I heard my door opening and her coming in. The bed moved, only slightly, as she sat down by my back, her hand coming to rest on my shoulder.

"Annie, it's time to get up."

"Do I have to?" I asked though I was already rolling over and blinking up at her. She pressed her hand against my forehead and frowned.

"Don't feel well?"

"Not particularly." I mumbled, forcing myself to sit up.

"Do you think you're up for training today?"

"Do I have a choice?" I asked and she hesitated.

I nodded and rolled out of bed, heading for the bathroom.

I took a quick shower, which made me feel a little more alive, though still not particularly well.

Grandma was waiting for me as I came out, her eyebrows slightly raised when she saw that I had straightened my hair.

"Different."

"Bad different?" I asked, playing with a straight strand nervously.

"No, just different." She found a headband from one of the drawers and placed it on my head, to keep my straight hair out of my face.

"Breakfast?" she asked, watching my face carefully. I placed a hand gingerly to my stomach, figuring out whether or not I could stomach food. After a moment's contemplation, I nodded.

I ate breakfast quietly, trying to keep my food down as I did so.

The second day of training was miserable for me. Not only was I feeling ill but I was now being constantly surrounded by the Careers. Everywhere I went, they were there, even when I went back to the editable plants station or the knot tying station, they were following me. They didn't talk to me, as such. Merle spoke to me, as did the twins from District One but mainly they just seemed to be watching me, calculating on whether or not I was worth keeping around. I couldn't understand why they were bothering. There were other tributes who were far more impressive than I was, but it was me that they were annoying.

They were also scaring away the few friends that I had made yesterday. The look Willow gave me when she saw me surrounded by Careers was heartbreaking.

By the afternoon I was just about ready to call it quits and head back up to our floor when something strange happened.

I was at the weapons stations, once more throwing spears, trying to learn how to put more force behind my throw, when I heard my name being called.

I looked at the trainer strangely for even he looked surprised before I looked towards the direction where my name was called from.

A tall man, not a Gamemaker, was standing at the entrance of the Training Centre, looking around the room, calling again, "Annie Cresta?"

I frowned, wariness eating me.

What was going on? This can't be normal, right? Another look at the trainers face told me that it wasn't.

"Off you go." He said and I lowered the spear and placed it back on its rack before walking towards the man, who was looking me up and down with an interested expression. I fingered the ends of my hair nervously as I passed him, him gesturing me out the door, closing it behind him once I was through.

"Come this way, please." He said gesturing for me to follow him.

"Um, what's going on?" I squeaked as I did as he asked.

He said nothing; he just kept on walking down a corridor that I had never been down before. I felt panic start to overwhelm me. What was going on? Had I done something wrong?

We came to a white and gold door at the very end of the corridor and he opened it, motioning for me to enter the room behind the door.

I did and I felt my heart stop.

"Hello Miss Cresta."

As I tried to get my heart beating again, as well as not throw up at the conflicting smells of roses and blood, I couldn't stop staring at the snake-like eyes that were the eyes of President Snow.

I jumped slightly as I heard the door behind me close, but I didn't take my eyes off the small, white-haired man in front of me.

He smiled at me, almost grandfatherly though his eyes were cold and snake-like and seemed to be enjoying my confused terror.

"How are you today Miss Cresta? Or may I call you Annie?"

"Um…"

"Would you like some tea?" he asked and I became aware of that he was standing in front of a table, laden with things one might use to have tea. He gestured for me to take a seat at the small round table, while he sat opposite me.

"How do you like it?" he asked me, still smiling grandfatherly as he picked up the pot of tea.

"Ah," I was trying to get my brain around what was happening. The president of Panem was offering me tea?

"I have milk and sugar." I squeaked as he poured the rich smelling tea into my cup. With a smile he added these things to my cup before handing it to me. I took it from him with trembling fingers.

"So," he said as he took a cup himself, filling it with cream and sugar. Enough to make my own teeth ache, "returning to my original question, how are you today Miss Cresta? Or do you prefer Annie?"

"Annie," I babble out while inside I cursed.

Get a grip, I growled at myself, but it was hard. So hard. This man destroyed so many lives. He made my boyfriend do things, terrible things, made him hurt and suffer and if he tried to refuse, Snow would kill him or Grandma and me.

And his breath! I fought back another wave of nausea.

"My day has been fine, thank you." I managed to say, my hands digging into the china of my teacup. He raised a white eyebrow over his own.

"Really? I was under the impression that you weren't feeling particularly well." He replied kindly, but the coldness behind it made me shiver. And then panic. He knows! He knows about the baby!

"Well, yes," I mumbled, staring down into my tea, "I haven't been feeling particularly well today. But I'm sure I'll get over it by tomorrow." I add quickly.

"Oh, I do hope so. I do understand that it is quite difficult to do things when one is in your unique condition, even in its most early stages." He knows… I sink down in my chair.

"I hope the father…"

"He's dead." I say without thinking, but I sound so mournful and sincere that I almost believed myself.

Snow raised his white eyebrow once more and looked me straight in the eyes, searching for truth, searching for lies.

"Is he now?"

"He died a month ago. There was a big storm that hit unexpectedly and his boat went down, along with most of her crew. They never found his body." I wasn't lying. There had been a big storm a month ago, that had taken a crew during her wrath and one of them had been a classmate of mine, a friend of mine. One of the few friends that I had actually had. I had cried for days after he had died, almost inconsolable. But since I was the only one who was actually grieving his lose, I felt entitled to a couple of days of grief.

"I'm so sorry to hear that. What was he's name?" He was going to check. He was going to get people to check out my story, to see if I was really telling the truth. I'm glad now that I was such an antisocial person and that Devon had been an only child, living in a community house and being antisocial himself.

"Devon Cree." I whisper and I feel the familiar grief of his death start to choke me up. I felt a tear fall from my eye but I quickly wiped it away.

Snow was watching me closely, observing everything I did. I seemed to have thrown him off and he was trying to regain control over the situation, trying to get back to what had been the original reason for my being brought here.

"Once again, I'm so sorry for your lose. I suppose Finnick Odair helps you deal with your grief?" ah…

I look up at him, trying to appear innocent, which I guess was an easy thing for me to do right now since I was all puffy eyed and red in the face, things that always happen whenever I become teary.

"Finnick?"

"I was under the impression you were quite close." He says casually.

"He lived with my grandmother and me for a couple of years, but he moved out about two years ago." I say off hand.

"So your visits during the nights these past two years were?" I felt myself deflate. So he knew, he knew about mine and Finnick's relationship, he knew or suspected that my baby was his, so why wasn't he just telling me what he knew and save me all this misery?

"He has bad nights and I just want to take care of him, be a good friend to him."

"A good friend?"

"Yes."

"Just a good friend?"

"Yes. He's just a good friend." He knew I was lying. I knew that he knew I was lying, so why…

Doesn't matter, a voice in my head that sounded like Grandma said, say whatever you can to just keep yourself, the baby and Finnick safe. Say anything and hope that he'll let you be.

"So he being your baby's," I shuddered when he said 'baby', "father is…" I cut him off with a firm look.

"He's dead. My baby's father is dead. Our relationship wasn't a public one and the baby wasn't planned."

"And you'll stick by that will you? This story of yours?" he seemed amused as well as calculating. I look him straight in the eyes and said once more, "My baby's father is dead. He's name was Devon Cree, he died a month ago in a boating accident."

"And your relationship with Mr Odair?"

"I have no relationship with Finnick Odair. We're friends, that's all."

"Well," he said and he was smiling widely now, too widely and the smell of roses and blood hit me even stronger than before, "that is very good to hear. I can tell you now that many here in the Capital would been very disappointed to hear that Mr Odair was taken… along with yourself, of course." I swallowed thickly and shook my head, feeling sick.

"Well, he's not. And I'm not, for what little that is worth." I'm trembling worse than ever. I watch Snow check his pocket watch while I slumped in my chair trying to control my shaking.

"Well, I'm glad we had this chat, it does clear a number of things up, which I am very pleased about." He rose from his chair and I did the same, desperate to get away from him.

"Yes, I am too." My words came out so fast, they probably made no sense at all, but I didn't care and he didn't seem bothered. I made for the door, my hand reaching for the handle when I felt a cold hand being placed on my shoulder.

"I'm so pleased that we could be honest with each other Miss Cresta. It saves a lot of time I find and leaves one with a guilt-free conscious, knowing that no lies will come creeping back to haunt them." I nodded my head.

"No lies." I whisper.

"Good girl. Let's keep it that way shall we or things might become… unpleasant for those you care for."

I nod again.

"Thank you sir, I'll keep that in mind."

He smiled and I was hit with another nauseating wave of roses and blood.

"I'm sure you will, Miss Cresta, I'm sure you will. Off you go now and remember this chat, won't you."

I nod again before bolting out of the room. I tore down the corridor, ignoring the looks of passing Avoxs' and other workers; I just kept running until I reached the elevators to get to my floor.

Once I got there though, my knees buckled from under me and I collapsed to the floor breathing hard and raggedly.

I pressed a hand to my stomach, to where my baby slept and I felt a whole new wave of panic hit me.

I was dead. He wasn't going to let me survive these games. He may have been letting my story about Devon being the father stand but he wasn't going to give me any opportunities to say anything different.

I don't know what people would do if they found out Finnick was the father of my baby, but I was guessing it wouldn't be good, for anyone involved.

I ran my fingers through my hair, which was now becoming wavy again, trying to gain control over my breathing.

How long had he known about mine and Finnick's relationship? Did it even matter? He wasn't going to let me live. He probably figured that my death would be the thing that finally broke Finnick, break him so completely that he'll become an obedient Victor for the citizens of the Capital.

It made me sick and it made me wanted to go back down the corridor and punch Snow. I would force myself to live through all hells before I let him and the Capital destroy the Finnick I love.

I rub my face and stared up at the ceiling of the lobby outside of the training centre. I wasn't sure what time it was, all I knew was that all the other tributes had left the Training Centre already. I just couldn't find the energy within me to follow their example and return to my floor.

I don't know how long I sat there, probably quite awhile before someone came and found me, or stumbled upon me rather.

"You? What are you doing down here? Why didn't you go back up with the rest of them?" demanded a voice from above my head. The voice was rough and a tad harsh.

I looked up and frowned. This man who was standing over me was so obviously not from the Capital.

His clothes were roughly put on and not entirely clean, his hair was messy and obviously hadn't been cut in awhile and he smelt strongly of alcohol, though his steel grey eyes were surprisingly clear.

I knew him from somewhere; he was familiar to me, though I know that I have never met him before in my life.

"Haymitch Abernathy?" I guessed after a moment or so. I wasn't entirely sure I had guessed right when he only gave me a grunt in reply.

"Your one of Mags's, aren't you? Her grandkid or something?"

"I'm her granddaughter, yes?"

"Then whatcha doing down here? Trying to worry her out of her mind? You've got plenty of time to do just that in a couple of days, so why start now?"

"I wasn't, I mean, I'm not." I stuttered weakly. "I had to go and see – they called me out of training so that I could go and see – I sort of couldn't move once I got here." I was starting to shake again, which made my words start to jumble together, my hand unconsciously moving to rest on my belly.

The look that Haymitch was giving me was something close to concern and possibly pity.

"Come on," he said, grabbing my upper arm and yanking me to my feet, "lets get you back to your floor, everyone is probably wondering where the hell you are." He punched the button for the elevator with his finger and when the doors open immediately after him pulled me inside with him, punching Number 4 as he did so.

On the ride up, I tried to gain some control over my trembling, to compose my face into a look that could be read as neutral. I didn't want to tell anyone that I had been taken out of training to go and speak with the President of Panem. I could predict the reactions from my mentors if they found out about my meeting with Snow. I could kiss any support, what little I had managed to gain from them these past few days, goodbye.

The elevators open at the fourth floor and I stepped out, as did Haymitch, though he wasn't tackled or interrogated as extensively as I was.

"Where have you been?" Grandma cried as she hugged me close to her, squeezing almost all the air out of my body. Over her trembling shoulders I could see Finnick staring at me; his face was a white as it possible could get with his bronze skin.

I tried to smile, but my face still felt numb so it came out awkward.

"You were called out of training, why?" Marlin demanded as did several other Victors. More questions were thrown at me, but I couldn't comprehend what was being asked.

"Give the girl some air; she can't think what with you all jabbering at her." Haymitch said unexpectedly. I hadn't realised he had stuck around after I had been tackled by Grandma.

"Where did you find her, Haymitch?" Marlin asked. So I had guessed right, it was Haymitch Abernathy, district Twelves only living victor.

"Standing by the elevators, getting ready to come up. Thought I might save myself the wait and came up with her." He was lying. Why was he lying?

I twisted my head around to look at him. He met my eyes, daring me to call him out on his lie. But why would he lie? Why wasn't he telling them that he had found me sitting on the ground, shaking and staring into space, unable to give him coherent answers to his questions? He must know that if he did that, told my mentors how he really found me, then his tributes would have a better chance of surviving during the games if a Career tribute was considered weak by her own mentors. But he wasn't and I couldn't understand why.

"Why were you called out of training, Annie?" Marlin asked again when everyone was quiet and Grandma had realised her death grip on me.

"Oh, um," I started weakly, trying to get my brain to come up with some excuse, some believable story for my being calling out during training, for being called away for so long and only returning just before dinner – probably would have come back earlier if my body and mind hadn't given out on me just by the elevators.

"Um, well you know that I've been feeling ill? Well the Trainers or maybe it was a Gamemaker, noticed and so I was sent to the medical client and they checked me over. To make sure that I would be alright by the games and that I don't have something that could infect the rest of the tributes. I feel fine now." I lied badly and yet everyone seemed to believe me. Well, when I say everyone, I should probably exclude Grandma, Finnick and Haymitch.

Haymitch simply shook his head at my lie, Grandma looked worried and Finnick looked downright terrified, though he quickly hid that and his facial expression became suspicious.

"Well, I'm off. I only came with her because I wanted a ride up." Haymitch said as he strolled back to the elevator.

Finnick dodged around the group who were standing around me and went to walk Haymitch to the elevator. Haymitch said something that I couldn't hear, but judging from Finnick's expression, it wasn't about anything good.

He shot me a pained look, while Haymitch gave me a firm nod as he stepped into the elevator, punched a button in it – twelve most likely – and the doors closed.

"So, you're all fine now? What was it? A bug?" Coral asked as she ushered Grandma and me to the dining table.

"Um, yeah. But I'm all fine now, they gave me some stuff and I feel great." I forced myself to smile widely and brightly back at the mentor who was only a few years older than Finnick.

Coral is probably one of our more beautiful Victors. Thick, wavy sandy brown hair down past her waist, brilliant ocean blue eyes, tall and curvaceous. It's no wonder that she's such a huge hit in the Capital, with both the men and women, though she apparently doesn't mind. She does it for the money, she looks at what she has to do as if it's a job, an unpleasant one at times maybe, but she's apparently learnt to close off that part of her mind once the "job" is done, or so she's told Grandma over the years. She's tried to teach Finnick to do the same, but he never can, he hates it too much too simply forget it or push it to the back of his mind.

Coral looks relieved.

"That's good to hear. We were really worried when Merle came back up and you weren't with him and when he told us that you were called out of training, well we could barely stop Finnick from racing off to look for you. He's been out of his mind with worry all afternoon and evening." She added looking at Grandma for confirmation.

Grandma nodded her head seriously; her dark green eyes were focused on my face as if trying to read from it what had truly happen to me this past afternoon.

"I'm sorry for worrying everyone over nothing. I'm fine now, I promise and this won't ever happen again." Coral nodded as she lightly tucked some of my hair behind my ear.

"Oi, where you been?" Merle called when he came out to the dinning room, stretching his rope like arms above his head. His hair was tousled and he's eyes were bleary. He must have just woken up.

"Had a medical check up, nothing important." I say with a shrug,

"Really?" he gave looked surprised, "They do that sort of thing?" he asked everyone in general.

"They want us to be in the best of shape when we enter the arena and since I haven't been, they gave me a check up." I replied. Wow, who knew lying could be so easy and natural.

Grandma was looking at me strangely as I spoke, but before I could ask what was wrong, dinner was served and Grandma was piling up my plate and setting it in front of me, telling me to eat. Which I did, I was surprised by just how hungry I was, but I found that I was starving and so I ate everything that Grandma kept loading on to my plate.

No one question my appetite or when I asked to be excused so that I could go to bed. No one, except for Finnick.

He blocked my path down the corridor to the bedrooms; we were out of sight of everyone else. He placed his hands on my shoulders and forced me to look up at me.

"What happened?" He demanded, which I felt was a tad rich coming from him as he had been the one who had been ignoring me for all this time and all of sudden wanted to talk to me, to demand answers from me. "What really happen?"

"I told you. They just wanted to do a check up on me. Make sure that I would be well for the games. Now, let go. I want to go to bed." I snapped, putting my hands onto his chest and shoved him away from me. That, shoving him away from me, hurt me just as much as I saw it had hurt him. Well good, now he knew how it felt.

He let go of my shoulders immediately and took a step away from me and then to the side, so that he was no longer blocking the corridor. The look on his face was almost unbearable, but I had to do this, I had to push him away or Snow would hurt him.

It still broke my heart to walk away from him, to not say anything to him. I did, however look back at him when I reached my door, my resolve not to look back had failed by this point.

He wasn't looking at me, but at the opposite wall, his chest heaving, his hands tightly fisted by his sides. He seemed to be struggling over something and it took all my control not to run back down the corridor and embrace him. Instead I forced myself to open my door and enter my room, but I stuck my head out again to have a final look at him. He seemed to have gain control over whatever it was that he had been struggling over and now, now he looked determined about something.

I ducked my head back into my room as he looked up the corridor towards my room, but when I sneaked another look out my door he was gone and I heard the elevator arriving at our floor.

Where was he going? Did he have a "job" to get to? But that couldn't be it, because I had heard, only moments before Coral calling out to him, asking where he was going. I hadn't heard any response from him, but I was sure somehow that where ever he was going, it had nothing to do with his other "job".

I was too tired to think too deeply as to what he was actually up to. Too tired and too numb and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and try and forget everything.

And I did just that, after having a quick shower first, but I didn't fall asleep. My mind was too awake, thinking over everything that Snow had said this afternoon. I was scared, but I wasn't as scared as I know I should have been. I was feeling more numb than anything else.

I wanted to live, I wanted to survive the game, to return home, have my baby, be with Grandma and Finnick. But I didn't want Finnick to suffer because of me, as I knew he would if anyone were to find out about our relationship, about the baby and reported it back to Snow. Snow would hurt Finnick, not kill him, he needed him too much for him to kill him, but he would hurt him in every way that he could. And what about the baby?

Even if I did survive the arena, did win by some odds, what would happen to my baby? Would he or she live to be born? I could come back damaged from the games, something could happen in the arena and the baby dies inside my womb? And if he or she does live to be born, would they live to see adulthood, or will they be reaped the moment that they turn twelve and I'll be forced to watch them die in some horrible arena and unable to do anything to save them.

My chest feels compressed and I can't breath. I roll on to my side, gasping in air as tears roll down my face.

There is a knock on my door and I have barely enough strength to wipe my tears away as Grandma enters my room.

"Annie?" she comes to sit on my bed after she closes my room's door.

"Hi Grandma." I say thickly.

"Annie," she wipes her hand against my face as she reaches out and turns on the lamp that is by my bed, "Oh Annie." She says as she wipes a tear from my cheek. I feel something in me break.

"They're going to kill me, Grandma."

She looks me straight in the eyes, her face frozen.

"How do you know that?"

I laughed a high-pitch bitter laugh.

"They told me as much."

"Who?"

"President Snow. I met with him this afternoon." Grandma's whole body became stiff and her eyes were wide with terror. "He knows Grandma." I continued on nonetheless, "He knows about Finnick and me. He knows about the baby."

I could see that Grandma was trying to remain calm, for my sake and for her own, but I could see that she was struggling.

"It's ok though." I added quickly, "I told him that Devon is the father of the baby."

"And he believed you?" Grandma asked, her voice was sad.

"Well, no, but if I keep to the story, if it should ever come out that I'm pregnant and no one has any reason to think differently, then you and Finnick should be fine." She gave me a hard look before sighing heavily.

"Oh darling. Oh Annie. My dear, dear Annie."

"Everything will be alright. You and Finnick will be alright. I won't let them hurt you, not because of me anyway."

"That's not what I care about, little one. I care about you and your baby." She pulled me into her arms. "What is my life, seventy-five years, compared to a young life that has only just begun?"

"Grandma…"

"I wish I could tell you how we're going to get through this. I wish I could tell you that everything will be alright and you will win and then come home to us, whole and well. But I can't dear one. I want to, so desperately, but I can't because I don't know." she was sobbing now.

"I'm not giving up Grandma." I whispered, "I promise you that I'm not. I'll fight as hard as I can to win."

"But you said…." She trailed off weakly.

"Yes, and I'm sure they'll try their very hardest to make me suffer and die, but I'll fight and give it all I have to win. I'm not going to lose because they want me to. I'm not their toy, their puppet that they can pull the strings of and make do whatever they want."

"And the baby?" she asked and I hesitate.

"I'll tell the story that Devon is the father. It's the only way to keep Finnick, the baby and you safe," I add quickly when she opens her mouth to protest. "I have to keep you all safe." I whispered.

"You'll break his heart you know." she whispered as she leant her head against my shoulder.

"Whose?"

"Finnick's. You're not going to tell him that the baby is his, are you?" I shake my head and I feel my own heart ache.

"He'll never accept it, you know. He'll never accept that you had a relationship with Devon."

"I cried over him when he died. I cried for days." I reminded her.

"Yes and whose arms did you cry in for those days?" she replied, "He'll never accept it and he might do something stupid as a result. You should tell him."

"I can't." I whisper and a fresh wave of tears roll down my cheeks.

"Why?"

"Because I can't be near him. I can't be with him. I don't even think I can even pretend to be just a friend to him. Snow doesn't want me and him to be together. If we are, then… bad things will happen. He promised as much."

"So, you're going to break his heart." Grandma mumbled, stroking my hair as I cry.

"It's the only way to keep him safe. Everyone safe."

"You'll have a hard time explaining that to him."

"How? He's been acting as if I don't exist basically from the moment we got here."

"To protect you."

"Well, I have to protect him too. And that means I have to break his heart and make him believe that I've been going behind his back with Devon."

I could feel Grandma shaking her head.

"We'll figure something out." She said finally, slowly rising from my bed and tucked me in like she had done when I was a little girl, "for the mean time, lets keep the baby between us and," her face became deathly with hate, "and Snow."

"I thought you said I should tell Finnick." I say, confused.

"And you should," she said with a nod, "after the games."

"What?"

"Trust me. It will most likely be better for the both of you, if you tell him about the baby after the games."

"Even when I'm going to tell him that the baby is Devon's?" I asked.

Grandma pulled a slight face at this before nodding.

"Even when you're going to tell him that the baby isn't his. Now, try and get some sleep." She said as she turned off my bedside lamp.

"Good night Grandma."

"Good night, dear one. Sleep well."

"Hmm, will try."

* * *

**Author's Note:** So the plot thickens. Yes, I'm evil. I threw Snow in and made him know of Annie's and Finnick's relationship, along with the baby. My argument for this is, if the guy knows about the kiss that Gale gave Katniss in the middle of the woods, he was bound to know about Annie and Finnick. Well, that's my logic and I'm sticking to it.  
And yes, I threw Haymitch into this chapter too. I couldn't help it and he seemed like the perfect mentor to stumble upon Annie.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are much loved.


	9. Chapter Nine

**Author's Note:** Hello Everyone. Here is Chapter Nine. It's a tad short, but it has Finnick in it! There are also some small spoilers for Mockingjay, so if you haven't read the third book, you have been warned. They're not huge spoilers, well, they are in some ways, but mainly it just about Finnick's "Job" and the stuff that he's learnt from his "Job" about certain people 'coughsnowcough'.  
Anyway, enough of my chatter, please enjoy and let me know what you think.

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

And I did. Try to sleep that is. I think I got around five hours before I was rudely awaken by my door slamming open, bouncing off my wall before being slammed shut again.

"Why didn't you tell me that you met Snow yesterday afternoon?" Finnick's voice growled in the darkness.

My hand flopped around my bedside table for the lamp, finding it and turned it on. The clock standing by it informed me just how early in the morning it was.

"Well, good morning to you too, sunshine." I replied, rubbing my eyes, "and keep it down. Do you want to wake everyone up?" I added when he looked about ready to yell at me again.

This shut him up for a moment or so, enough time for him to stalk over to my bed and glare down at me. In any other situation, I would probably laugh due to the fact that Finnick really isn't a morning person on a good day, but at the moment he looked ridiculous. His hair was all over the place, he face was pulled into a frown that would put a four year old having a temper tantrum to shame and he just looked funny. Or maybe it's the lack of sleep or maybe the nerves, whatever it was; it was making me have a sudden bout of the giggles, because before I knew I was giggling uncontrollably.

"Annie," he growl in exasperation, "stop laughing!"

"Sorry." I giggled, "Can't."

He came to crouch down by me, his frown now replaced with concern as he watched me giggle.

Once I had calm down some, he asked me again.

"Why didn't you tell me, anyone, that you went and saw Snow yesterday?" he asked, far more calmly now.

"I told Grandma." I said and he looked maybe momentarily relieved.

"How do you know?" I asked suddenly, my head tilted to one side.

"Hmm?"

"How did you know I went and saw the President yesterday?"

"If you know who to ask, you can find out just about anything." He informed and my heart stopped for a moment. Did that mean he knew too? About the baby? Was that why he was so angry with me?

"Only, I wasn't able to find out why he wanted to meet with you yesterday, only that he did." He added and I felt a moment of relief, though that feeling quickly disappeared when I saw his face.

"Why, Annie? Why did he want to meet you yesterday?" he was terrified and desperate. "I was so careful. I did everything he asked, so why? Why?" he was talking to himself I realised after a moment.

"What did I do wrong?" he whispered and I caught his face in my hands, forcing him to look up at me.

"Nothing. You didn't do anything wrong, Finnick."

"Then why did he want to see you?" he demanded. I wanted to lie, like I had done last night, to erase his fear and pain, but I couldn't.

"He found out…" I looked away from him, "he found out about us." I said and his whole body froze. Like I had my hands on his face, his hands now came to rest on mine, turning my head so that I looked at him.

"What did he do? What did he threat to do to you?" he asked very slowly and deliberately. I couldn't tell him though, because then I would have to tell him about the baby and-and I wasn't ready to do that just yet. Maybe Grandma was right about not telling him about it until after the games.

"Annie?"

"Why do you even care?" I asked harshly. He didn't even flinch, damn him!

"Because I love you, stupid." He replied just as harshly. "And this is all my fault."

"How do you figure?" I asked.

"I must have done something, something that he didn't like or someone complained or maybe he knows that I know…" I interrupted him mid-sentenced.

"Or someone back home noticed me sneaking from your house back to mine and they went and told him." I snapped even though my heart sunk at the thought, but it was the only thing that made sense as to how he would know about my doing that. That or there are camera's set up around the Victor's Village that no one knows about. Come to think of it, that's not as far-fetch as it might seem.

"Maybe…" he said but he sounded doubtful. "So what happened?" I was tempted to ask him yet again why he cared but since he had said he loved me – which had made my insides all gooey and I was fighting hard enough already not to show it – I flopped back into bed and stared up at my ceiling. Then after a moment, I wiggled over to make room for him. He hopped on without a word, though he didn't get under the covers with me. I wasn't sure how exactly I felt about that.

"I don't know. It was all a bit weird really." I admitted after a while. I was too comfortable having him there and I kept having to stop myself from rolling over and curling into his side.

"What did he say?"

"Not much, really. He was very cryptic." Which was true.

He gestured for me to continue.

"Well, he asked me how my day was, if I was enjoying training," – not so much as asking how I was dealing with training in my condition, - "if he could call me Annie and how I liked my tea." I finished and I felt him stiff. Suddenly he was leaning over me, looking completely frantic.

"Did you drink it?"

"What?"

"Did you drink it? The tea? Did you?"

"Um," I couldn't understand why he was freaking out about whether or not I had drunk the tea, "no. I didn't have a chance. It wasn't an overly long interview and I was panicking too much to think about drinking the tea. Why?" the relief written on his face was strange. He pulled me into his arms and hugged me close to him.

"Finnick?"

"Have you ever wondered how our good President Snow has stayed in office for so long?" Finnick asked me unexpectedly. I pull away from him, looking up at his face with a frown.

"What?" and no, I hadn't. The thought had never even crossed my mind. President Snow has been president of Panem since before I was born and it feels like he'll still be president well after I've died. "No."

"Do you want to know?" he asked and I felt something inside of me feel a little ill, more than a little and it had nothing to do with the baby.

"Am I allowed to know?" I asked nervously, worried that unseen ears might be listening in on our conversation.

"They don't have any cameras or anything like that installed in the tributes rooms." Finnick said as if reading my thoughts, or maybe he saw me looking around the room.

"How do you…" I started but let my voice die.

"You know what I'm forced to do here." He started out slowly, not looking at me but rather at the opposite wall. "What Snow forces me to do? You know why I have to do it?"

I hesitate for a moment.

"Because he'll kill you if you don't." I guessed. Though I knew all about Finnick's other "Job", we had never really spoken about it further than me trying to stop him from either drowning himself or rubbing himself raw in either the shower or the ocean because he feels he isn't clean enough, that he can't get them off him, that his skin reeks of them. It can take hours after he's come back from the Capital to get him to come out of the ocean or shower, all red and raw from scrubbing himself so vigorously. One time he had scrubbed himself so hard that his skin was actually bleeding.

He laughed.

"I wish," he said with a harsh, short laugh, "if that was all, then I would have told him no a million times. Though I doubt he would have, I'm too valuable to him still. No," he looked down at me, "no, if I said no, he would kill everyone I loved. That's what happened to Johanna. She said no and he killed her whole family." I felt myself shudder in disgust and in sympathy, in pity for her lose.

"But I've learnt to work it to my advantage." He started once more. "I do it so that I can protect everyone I care about, everyone I love," his arms around me grow a little tighter and he lips my hair as he speaks, "but I've learnt how to turn it to my advantage as well."

"How?"

"I don't ask to be paid with money or jewellery," he shook his head like the idea amused him, "I've discovered a much more valuable form of payment. Secrets."

"What kind?" I asked softly.

"Any that I feel are worth my while." He says. "And a lot that are worth my while are about Snow. I've found out some pretty interesting things about our president that he wouldn't like to get out." His smile is almost evil and I feel myself shiver at the sight of it.

"Like?" I find myself asking.

"Like how he poisons anyone he perceives as a threat. He's adversaries; sometimes he'll poison his own allies if he starts to see them as a threat to him. Did you notice when you were with him, that strange mixture of blood and roses?" I nodded, remembering the sickening smell and I start to feel ill once more as I remember. "That smell, the smell of blood is caused from him poisoning himself along with his victims so as not to call suspicion onto himself. He has antidotes for the poisons that he uses, but they don't always work, hence the constant smell of blood due to the sores in his mouth that will never fully heal. He uses strong smelling perfume to try and mask the smell."

"Well it doesn't work," I mutter, "it just makes it worse." Then I shake my head, sighing. "Makes sense though."

"Hmmm?"

"He reminds me of a snake. When I met him yesterday and I looked into his eyes, all I could think was 'snake'. And now you've told me that the way he rids himself of all his competitors is by using poison. Poison, the ultimate weapon of a snake."

"You know, I never thought of it like that, but you're right." He then did something he hasn't done in days and that was kiss me. Not on the lips, but on my temple.

"I'm so glad you didn't drink the tea." he whispered against my temple and I nodded. I was too.

"Do you really think he would have? Poison my tea, I mean?" I asked.

"Don't know. Possibly not since you're going into the Arena in a couple of days. Why kill off the entertainment early?" he asked grimly.

"He's going to though." I muttered under my breath.

"What?" oh damn, he heard.

"Annie," he took hold of my chin and turned my head around to look at him. I try to smile but I fail.

"I don't think I'm going to make it out of the Arena." I admitted. "I'll try," I add quickly when I see his face, "but I just have a feeling that I might have a hard time, harder than anyone else that is."

"Did he tell you that?" he asked in a strangled voice. "And because of us? Because I'm with you?"

"No, not as such. And I told him we were just friends. Which of course he didn't believe, but he said I was to stick to the story." Or things might become unpleasant for those I love.

I could feel his panic, his grief, his anger as he held me against him tightly.

"I won't-I won't let them take you from me." he whispers harshly into my ear. "I'll get you out, I'll get you home."

"And then what?" I asked a little dryly, "You'll hide me away for the rest of my life?"

"Don't tempt me." he growls thickly into my hair. "So that's all he wanted to see you about? Us and our relationship?"

"Ah," I started, thinking back over my whole meeting with Snow, which had mostly been about my baby with Finnick thrown in near the end, "basically."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Finnick asked me.

"That was basically what he wanted to see me about. I told you, he's cryptic. It took awhile for me to figure out what he actually wanted and when I did, I just said that we were friends and that I'd stick to that story if anyone asked me."

Finnick made an hmphed noise as he fell back on to my bed and pulled me to his side. It was at this moment that I was tempted to tell him about the baby, consequences be damned!

But somehow I managed to hold my tongue and simply enjoyed being held by him, burying my face into his neck and breathed in deeply. He still smelled of the ocean.

"I've missed you." I whisper instead.

"I know." he sighed, "you have no idea." He hugged me close to him.

And in only moments, I'm fast asleep.

* * *

**Author's Note:** YAY! So Finnick's back! He's whole reason for being all distant and cold with Annie was all due to his desire to protect her and stop people from finding out about them. At least that was his plan... didn't work all that well, huh?

Anyway, on a completely different topic, but eventually comes back around to Hunger Games and Annie and Finnick. I saw Snow White and the Huntsman earlier this week and I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I think this is one of KS best roles - Please don't kill me Twilight Fans or this fic will never be finished! - and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole story. But what I probably loved best about the whole movie was in fact the end credits. Why you may ask? Well, because I found or rather heard, the perfect song for Hunger Games, this fanfic and Annie and Finnick. Some of you may have heard it already and might agree with me (might not, but each to their own) on this, but I think it's a brilliant song for Hunger Games, especially for Annie and Finnick. It's called _Breath of Life _by Florence and the Machine and in my mind it is just perfect for these two. I also think its the perfect song for this fanfic and I've been listening to it almost religiously as I've been writing Part Two.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Author's Note:** Hey Everyone.  
So I figured since I'm heading back to TAFE/College next week and will be facing even longer, more involved days that are most likely going to leave me brain fried, I had better finish posting up all of Part 1 while I still have the time and letting you all know now that while I will be writing Part 2 during every spare moment that I have, don't be expecting any updates anytime soon.  
Sorry, but TAFE/College is important and I need to focus on it... even though this semester might just possibly kill me. Five days, 9 til almost 6 being stuck in front of a compute/virtual machines, switches and routers... I'm going to die or my brain is definately going to be fried. Though hopefully not, but anyway, I've given you the heads up, so hopefully when I do start posting up Part 2 you'll all be coming back to read it and Part 3... whenever it's done. I really need to stop setting myself up with these series fics. They're going to kill me along with the damn CISCO switches.

Ok, so Chapter Ten is mostly about Annie's Private Session with the Gamemakers, though mainly this whole chapter is about Annie and Finnick. There is tiny, miniscule bit of smut at the end of this chapter, but it's so tiny, I really shouldn't need to warn you about it but since is going somewhat disney on us and I don't want my account deleted, my warning is here for all to see.

Ok, enough chatter from me. Sorry this is another short chapter, but I will be posting chapter eleven fairly soon, probably tomorrow. Only two more chapters to go until the end of Part 1. I'm torn between being delighted and somewhat depressed about this. Anyway, please enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

I wake up early, after probably the best sleep that I've had since my name was reaped. I stretch my stiff limps the best I can, as I'm currently pin under Finnick who is currently acting as deadweight on top of me.

Despite it being hard to breath, what with his weight being on top of me, I couldn't image myself anywhere that I'd rather be right at this moment.

I smiled as I gently traced his handsome features; his regal nose that is ever so slight crocked – you only notice that it was crocked when you're as close to him as I currently am and I only notice because I'm the one who broke it. It's a funny story that my grandmother loves to tell anyone who is willing to listen, much to the embarrassment of Finnick and me. – high cheekbones and perfectly arched eyebrows.

I run my finger over one of his cheeks then his chin, wondering what he'd look like with a beard. I've never seen him with a beard; I haven't even seen him with even the vaguest hint of a whisker growing on his face. The Capital did something, something to make sure that he grew no facial hair beside from his eyebrows and his hair on the top of his head. To do this, they gave him a large dose of the drug that is given to the boy tributes before they enter the games to keep them clean shave through out. It's just in Finnick's case the drug last something like a year, while with the boys... or rather the boy winner, he'll probably have a beard starting to grow out after a couple of mouths of being home again.

Anyway, I find this to be a pity due to the fact that I think he'd look good with a beard. Not a big, long one, but one that just shadows his chin and cheeks.

"It's weird to watch someone while their sleeping." Finnick commented drowsily.

"You're not sleeping." I counted, continuing on tracing his features.

"I was." He said as he kissed my finger that had just run over his lips. He opened his brilliant green eyes to stare down at me as he slowly rolled off me and on to his side, but he kept his arm wrapped firmly around me.

"You are so beautiful." He informed me and I went bright red. I know, I could feel the heat of my cheeks.

"Shush." I grumbled and tried to push him away.

"You are." He insists still, kissing my cheek.

"Hush." I whisper trying to keep myself from giggling as he kissed his way to my neck, finding the spot there that makes my knees weak.

"I've missed you." he groaned as he continued to kiss my sensitive spot at the base of my neck.

"Then don't ignore me and you won't have to miss me." I replied, a little coolly. He lifted his head from my neck and looked at me sheepishly.

"I'm sorry. I was just…" he trailed off before shaking his head. "Forget it. I was being stupid. I'm sorry. I won't ever do it again. That is, if you won't push me away either?" he looked at me with pleading eyes and I saw how much I had hurt him yesterday when I had shoved him away from me.

"You're forgiven." I say with a nod and he looks relieved, leaning into kiss me. I let him kiss me for a moment, before rolling away from him.

"Where you going?" he demanded and I laughed.

"If you must know, the bathroom, plus I have to get ready. Training remember."

"Oh, right." He pulled a face. "Have you thought about what you're going to show in your private session with the Gamemakers?"

I shook my head before heading off for my private bathroom. I spent about half an hour in there, getting myself ready for the day. When I come out Finnick has already left my room, to get ready for the day himself and also so as not to be question by anyone about why he was in my room this early in the morning.

Breakfast was a busy affair, being drilled about what skill Merle and I were going to show Gamemakers to impress them into giving us decent scores. I personally wasn't expecting an overly high score myself. There isn't really anything impressive about throwing a spear, especially when there is barely any strength behind it. I can throw far and I always hit my target, but my throw just has no strength behind it, I won't take down another tribute with any spear I've thrown. My throw is that of a fisherman, not a warrior.

I spend my morning at the knot-tying station for no other reason than it gives me peace of mind. Strange, I know, but there is just something about tying pieces of rope together that has a calming affect on me. It's the same with Finnick.

When he came back from his games, the first night he came over to Grandma's house because he couldn't handle things anymore, I gave him a piece of rope to knot. It was the same piece of rope my grandmother gave me after my parents tied and I was a mess. I gave it to him and to my knowledge that first night he spent at Grandma's, he spent it knotting that piece of rope over and over again. He still has it. I see it occasionally, sticking out of his pocket for when he's off somewhere that he knows he'll become stressed or it'll be tucked under his pillow in case of nightmares.

I saw him fiddling with it at breakfast this morning, out of sight from the other District Four victors, knotting it and unknotting it over and over again under the table.

I wish I had it now, but I make do with the different ropes at the knot tying station.

They start calling us at lunch time for our private sessions with the Gamemakers. District One is called forward first and because it's boy before girl, Jeopardy struts out of the dinning room to meet with the Gamemakers before his slightly sulking sister.

I try to remain calm as I wait my turn to meet with the Gamemakers but by the time my turn is called my finger nails are destroyed, some bitten so badly that they are actually bleeding.

All the same I walk out of the dinning room with my head held high while tyring not to trip over my feet. I straighten my hair that is thrown into its usual high tail at the top of the crown of my head, lift my chin just a little high and walk into the gymnasium.

I swallow thickly when I feel all Gamemakers eyes on me, but I manage to walk calmly to where the spears are set up in the weaponry section of the gym. I hear a mumble of conversation as I do this. I know they're talking about my light build and lack of obvious muscle, but I ignore them and pick up a spear, a light weight one. I know, I know, but I've tried to throw with the heavy weight ones and they barely make it a metre when I throw them.

I walk to the centre of the gym, lining myself up with the dummy at the furthest end of the room. I hear more muttering, but I force myself to block it out. Instead I think of the ocean, of the waves and the wind and the cries of the seabirds flying around my head. Deep, slow breaths, in and out, in and out.

The spear is out of my hand and has embedded itself into the furthest dummy, only for it to moments later fall out and hit the floor with a clank. I wince. I hit the target but I hadn't killed it. I glance nervously at the Gamemakers, watching them take notes and mutter about themselves. Some were shaking their heads.

Run, two voices in my head say, they sounded like Grandma and Finnick. Run Annie, show them how fast you are.

I take a deep breath and walk to one end of the room, the muttering stops and I can feel all eyes on me as I lower myself into a set position for sprinting.

I close my eyes, breathing in reassuring breaths. I love to swim more than I do running, but… I do love the wind in my hair, the speed that I can make my legs run, the power that I use to do so.

I glance towards the Gamemakers and notice that one of them is now holding a stopwatch in his hand.

He holds up three fingers towards me, before slowly curling each one down to his palm. As soon as his last finger curls down and he is now holding up a fist, I run. I run the full length of the gym and then back again. I can now hear murmurs of satisfaction and when I look over to they are nodding and smiling as the Gamemaker who was holding the stopwatch shows them my time.

"Thank you very much Miss Cresta. You may leave." An elderly Gamemakers informs me. I give all the Gamemakers a nod before leaving the room as fast as I possibly can.

When I'm safely in the elevator I allow myself a few moments of worry. They were impressed with how fast I had been able to run, but just how impressed? There is no way that I've scored anything higher than a six, an extremely low score for someone from an Career district.

As soon as I reach my floor, I'm immediately surround by everyone, questions being shot from all directions, all so loud and jumbled that I couldn't comphrend what was being asked.

"Let her breath." I heard Finnick yell over everyone else and suddenly the crowd around me takes at least three steps away from me and I'm able to gain my breath and think.

"So, how did it go?" Marlin asked and I swallowed thickly.

"Um," I immediately start seeing worry cross everyone's face, though it did vary from face to face.

"What did you show them? Your spear throwing?" Marlin asked, guiding me to the dinner table where Merle was sitting. He gave me a wave, which surprised me but I returned the gesture anyway.

"Uh, yeah, I did, but they weren't overly impressed by it. I mean, I threw it and it hit the target, the furthest one in the room, but it um, the spear, it um, it fell out of the dummy." I saw even Merle wince as I said this.

Marlin closed his eyes and Finnick had gone a little white. Grandma who had come to sit by me, squeezed my shoulder gently.

"Well, that's that then." Marlin sighed.

"No, it's not." I say quickly and everyone looks at me sceptically.

"I ran." I added quickly. I see Finnick immediately brighten at this and others in the room look a little more hopeful.

"And?" Marlin asked waving a hand for me to continue.

"They seemed to be impressed."

"How impressed?" Marlin pressed.

"Well, one of them had a stopwatch and they were all crowding around it to see my time." I say. "I know it's still not that great but at least we know to expect something a little higher than a three, right?" I say anxiously.

"We'll see." Marlin said, looking thoughtful, "we'll see." He got up then and headed for the elevator, called it before disappearing within it.

"What did you do?" I asked Merle.

"Ah, threw a couple of spears, stabbed a couple of dummies with a sword. You know usual Career stuff." He actually looked a little sheepish as he said this.

"You'll probably get an eight." I say trying to be soothing, "maybe higher."

"Yeah, maybe. Any idea what your time was?" he asked un-expectantly.

I shook my head.

"I don't know. But I don't think I ran as fast as I usually can. I didn't warm up or anything, so." I shrugged, nerves gnawing at my stomach.

"Maybe, but I still bet you're one of the fastest runner's they've ever seen. Pity they don't have a pool here, then they'd see just fast you really can go. You'd score a twelve for sure." He said with a shrug as he downed the orange juice that he had just been handed by an Avox.

He stretched as he got up from the table before heading for his room. I stared after him somewhat perplexed.

"Why is he being nice to me all of a sudden?" I asked Grandma and Finnick – who was now sitting opposite us.

"Probably sees you as a threat and wants to know all that he can about you, your weaknesses and strengths, stuff like that so he can plan exactly how he'll kill you when the time comes. Or maybe he wants to become allies with you and then kill you later on when the time comes." Finnick informed me rather bluntly.

I give him a look and kick him under the table.

We have dinner shortly after that before we all go and sit in the sitting room to watch the scores being announced on the television. I'm on the floor, my back pressed against the sofa, between the legs of Grandma and Finnick. As I watch the photographs of each of the tributes flash up on the screen, I feel my nerves grow and grow.

It'll be five. My score will be a five. The lowest score a Career has ever received.

Jeopardy and Serendipity from District One score an eight and nine between them, while Cole and Jade from District Two both score tens. Wonderful.

The boy and girl from District Three score two sixes, a slightly higher scores than average for kids from District Three. I wondered what they both showed the Gamemakers. Did they create an incredible trap?

Merle scores a nine, but that's not a huge surprise, but we all gave him a large clap all the same. My score is up next.

I dig my destroyed fingernails into the palms of my hands. An eight flashes against my picture and I feel my mouth drop in disbelief.

An eight? For being able to sprint from one end of the room and back? Were they serious?

I receive a loud round of claps, though the faces near me look just as startled as I do.

"How fast were you running?" Coral asks as she beams at me.

"I-I…" I had no idea. I glance back at grandma who looks torn between being delighted and worried by my score. Finnick's expression is much the same as Grandma's but he shoots me a wide grin when I looked his way.

I escaped to my room soon after that, taking a quick shower before falling into an exhausted heap on my bed.

I was joined in bed a few hours later by Finnick. He seemed distracted and determined to smell and hug every inch of me to him. He was also quite wet, like he had just gotten out of the shower but hadn't dried himself off properly.

"Tried drowning yourself again?" I asked worriedly, his nose buried deeply into my hair.

"Hmmm," I ran my hands over his bare skin – he was naked for all but a pair of loose shorts – hoping that the wetness that I was feeling was water not blood, though I didn't smell any of the salty, rusty smell that accompanies it.

"I'm fine Annie." He says after awhile, after I've search him all over for any injury he may have caused himself. "I just wanted to get here as fast as I could."

"Bad?"

"I've been with worse." He replied and then he was kissing me roughly, rolling me under him. I let out a gasp of surprise before wrapping my arms around his neck and kissed him back.

For the next few hours, it was just us. Nothing else in the world mattered, nothing in the world could hurts us, all that matter was us. Him and me, together, lips, bodies, hearts, everything simply joined together to become one.

"I love you. I love you so much." He whispered into my ear as he held me close to him, his hand running over my bare skin.

"I love you too." I whisper back. He gives me a sly, cocky smile as he says.

"Quite right. How could you not?" I hit him playfully before gasping as he somehow got himself even deeper within me.

He grinned widely, so filled with love and happiness that I could not remain angry at him for long. And after a moment, I had completely forgotten why I had been irritated with him to begin with.


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Author's Note:** Sorry, yet another short chapter but there are more Annie/Finn moments in it. Chapter twelve will be posted up soon, most likely tomorrow some time.  
Please enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

I wake up early the next morning, once more pinned to the bed by Finnick's comfortable weight. I lay beneath him, content not to move, simply letting my thoughts drift across my mind.

Today they'll be coaching us for our interviews tomorrow night.

I feel a little bundle of nerves begin to form in my belly when I think of the interview but I ignore it. Out of everything that I'm going to face because of these Games, the interview with Caesar Flickerman is the least scary. Or at least, it should be.

My stomach rolls and I remember that there is actually another reason as to why I might be feeling ill this morning. The baby.

How could I have forgotten about my child? My own child? Finnick's child?

It's just that, after my interview with Snow, I haven't been able to bear thinking about the little human being growing inside of me, so… I haven't been, to save myself from further pain.

I run a hand over my belly, feeling the ever so slight swell of it and sigh.

I'm sorry Baby. I'm sorry that Mummy hasn't been a great mother to you. You're not even born yet and I'm already messing up, forgetting about you and everything.

Finnick stirred against me, opening one blurry eye as he took in the morning and me.

"What's wrong?" he asked, running a finger down the side of my face. I kissed it as it passes over my lips.

"Nothing. Just thinking about my interview." Which was partially true.

"Ah." He said, "You'll be fine. Just smile and look pretty." He says but he sounds a tad bitter. "or maybe I'll speak to Eyria and ask her to make you look horrible."

I laugh.

"I'm serious." He insists but he's grinning and kissing my mouth gently. We kiss for a few moments before I start pushing him away.

"I need to get up and get ready and you need to disappear back to your room before anyone comes asking questions." I say as I roll away from him and out of bed, tugging on my sleeping shirt that falls to my thighs as I go. Finnick muttered something that sounds a lot like 'spoilsport' when I do this, but he rolls out of bed after me, pulling on his shorts.

He kisses me soundly before leaving my room. I smiled a small silly smile as I went and had my shower.

I managed to get some control over myself during my shower so by the time I was heading for the dinning room for breakfast; my face was no longer screaming that I was undyingly happy about something. I didn't want to be question about my good mood, though I guess everyone might just put it down to my still being pleased over my incredibly high score.

During breakfast, Marlin quickly goes over what to expect during our interviews and about what we'd be coached on today to prepare us.

I ate and listened half-heartedly to what he was saying. Merle wasn't paying any attention at all, too torn was he between trying to stay awake and eat his breakfast.

After breakfast Grandma, Coral and I headed back to my room where we're joined five minutes later by Eyria, who is carrying her sketch pad under her arm and smiling at me widely.

"Morning." She greets us cheerily. I greet her just as cheerily back until I see that she is pulling out a full-length gown out of my closet – I didn't even know it was even in there – and a pair of high-heeled shoes.

She dressed me up in the gown and shoes and plays with my hair until it's half in a bun with ringlets cascading from it before then informing me that she wants me to walk.

"You have to be joking." I spluttered when I look down at the heels that are strapped to my feet. The heel is several inches high and the only thing holding the damn "shoe" to my feet is a ribbon, knotted strategically around my calf.

I shoot Grandma a 'help me' look, but she simply smiles and gestures for me to do as Eyria says.

I wobble around in the heels for maybe an hour before I've finally learnt to master a short, straight walk that I can manage to do while my head held high and not looking down at my feet. Then I'm taught to sit correctly while wearing the gown, how my posture should be while sitting or standing. Eye contact was a big issue for awhile there, since I have a tendency to look away from whomever I'm talking to, look at my hands or at the wall behind them. Its nerves and my own shyness.

I can count on one hand the number of people I can look in the eyes of while I'm talking to them and those two are here in the Capital with me.

The only thing I seem to get right straight up is smiling. I can smile a sweet, pretty smile even when I'm a bundle of nerves inside.

Once Coral and Eyria see that I can smile this smile every time they ask, they are delighted and say that my smile will be my saving grace during the interview. I'm sure they mean that in a nice way.

By the time lunch rolls around Coral and Eyria are more or less happy with me, but they tell me that they want me to smile as much as possible; I seem to keep eye contact better when I'm smiling. I promise that I will and head for lunch, kicking off my high-heels into my closet as I pass it. Out of the corner of my eye I see Coral and Eyria wince as they listen to the thud that both heels make as they hit the closet wall, but since my grandmother is trying to smother a smile, I guess I'm not in too much trouble.

I walked into the dinning room, immediately seeing that Merle looks like he's in a foul mood over something, while Finnick looks like he's trying very, very hard not to laugh with several of the other Victor's shooting him exasperated looks.

I want to ask want has happen, but refrain from doing so. If only to keep my head from being chewed off by Merle.

After lunch, I was taken into the sitting room, where I sit on one of the couches opposite to where Finnick, Coral and Grandma sit. They all look me up and down, before talking quietly to each other. After a few minutes of this, I start to slouch into the couch, feeling bored and invisible.

"Annie." Grandma says quite suddenly and I look up from where I had been playing with my seashell necklace, to her and her exasperated look. Finnick looks like he's trying not to laugh again.

"Well?" I ask sounding and feeling a tad impatient. Coral and Finnick look at each other before Coral spoke.

"We're just trying to think of what to do with you." Coral explains and I feel my face immediately snap into a frown.

"Smile Annie." Coral commands before continuing, "What I mean is, how we're going to present you to the audience during your interview. What angle you'll play during it. Charming? Fierce?" I pull a face. "Sexy?" I cringe away from that and Finnick laughs silently by Coral side.

I peg a cushion at him, which he annoyingly catches and throws back at me. I aim it once more at his head, but Coral's shrill voice stops me.

"Stop it, both of you. Finnick!" She gave him an exasperated look, "if you're going to be nothing more than a distraction, then get lost."

"Do you find me distracting?" he asked teasingly, a slight purr to his voice. I glare at him while Coral grabs a cushion herself and smacks it against his grinning face.

Grandma heaves a great sigh and says that she needs a cup of tea. She sends Finnick and me a look that clearly read that we were to behave ourselves.

"What's Merle's angle? Am I allowed to know?" I ask Finnick, hoping to pacify Coral who looks ready to strangle Finnick and me by being serious.

However Finnick obviously has other things on mind because he just starts laughing again.

"Finnick!" Coral snaps and Finnick forces himself to gain some control over his laughter.

"Ah, sorry. Um, he was trying to go for likeable but it came out somewhat more comical than he meant it to be." Finnick finished sniggering again.

"So what angle is he actually going with?" Coral asked.

"Um, oh confident. They wanted him to try and be like me, during my interview for my games but that proved to be impossible for him so he's going with more Trouts approach. Being a confident ass." He chuckles.

"You didn't say that to his face, did you?" Coral demanded. Finnick simply grinned at her and she sighed.

"You're going to get punched again." She says and I look at him wildly. Punched, again?

"I actually dodged his punch, if you do remember." Finnick replied back easily, lounging out on the couch.

"Who punched you? Or tried to?" I demanded.

"Uh, Trout." Finnick informed me with a shrug. "We didn't get along during his games."

"And you do now?" Coral and I both ask as one and he simply smiles back at us.

"Alright, enough already. Come on, back to business." Coral says after a couple of moments. She gives Finnick a warning look to behave and not distract me, before she turned back to me.

"Alright Annie, I want you to pretend that Finnick and I are the audience. Alright, go."

I did try. I honestly did. But I've never been one who was any good at talking to a crowd. Speeches at school, at school assemblies? Forget it.

The last time I made a speech a school, I ran out half way through it and hid down by the rock pools, in this little rocky cave that is my hiding place when I want to be alone. It was hours before I came out and the only reason that I did was because I heard Finnick calling me.

"Annie, eye contact." Coral groaned after what had felt like hours of being asked question after stupid question. "And you're mumbling. I can barely hear what you're saying."

I think of several fairly nasty things to reply to that with but I keep quiet, staring sullenly down at my bare feet.

"Coral, why don't you take a break and I'll try for a bit." Finnick offered suddenly. He's kept quiet for a huge chuck of this stupid process.

Instead of arguing as I thought she would, Coral simply stood up, giving him a look that clearly read 'she's all yours' before stalking out of the room.

I glare half-heartedly after her as she leaves.

Finnick moves over to sit by me, taking hold of one of my hands and stroking the back of it with his thumb.

"I thought you said you were going to try." He says softly.

"I am trying. I'm just not good at speaking. I'm not like you, with your words and smiles and having everyone follow you around, doing everything that you say, believing every word that you speak." I grumble while he chuckles.

"It's true." I insist and he laughs some more. "Plus why do I even want to talk to these people, look them in the eye, be nice to them, praise them and their city. Why do I want to answer questions that are all about me?"

"Sponsors." He says and it's the only reason he gives. "You want Sponsors and to get them, you need to win them over. You need to get them to like you, make them like you so much that they want you to win, make them want to help you win."

"But I…" I start but he holds out his hand and shakes his head.

"They don't care Annie. They don't give a damn that you don't want to talk to them, that you hate them with every being in your body. All they care about is if you can win them lots of money and fame and so on if they choose to sponsor you. That's all they care about. And really, that's all you want them to care about. Make them want to sponsor you, Annie. Make them want you to win."

I look at him and he looks straight back at me, right in my eyes.

"Will you be there?" I asked softly and he smiles, cupping my left cheek with his hand.

"Of course. I'll be right there in the front row." He smiles and I smile back, before biting down hard upon my bottom lip and closing my eyes.

"Annie?" I'm in his arms and he is rocky me against him.

"Only two more days to go." I whisper and he tenses before his grip on me tightens. I don't know how long we stay like this, hours I think, before we are called for dinner.

When Marlin asks how everything went, Finnick lies and says everything went fine and I was right to go, that my interview with Caesar would be fantastic and memorable.

I don't say anything, simply staring down at my plate, thinking over and over again, two more days to go.

Two more days to go.

* * *

**Author's Note:** And so the count down for the Games begins. Next Chapter will be Annie's interview with Caesar, plus... some of the stuff but you'll just have to wait and read about all that.  
Thanks for reading and reviews and favourites are deeply appreciated and loved.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Author's Note:** So here is the final chapter for Part One of this fic. YAY! Hope you've all enjoyed this fanfc so far. As I said in an earlier chapter A/N, it might be awhile for Part Two to be posted up since this semester is going to be extremely full on - I'm doing the Diloma in Networking, so a heavy workload is to be expected - so I really won't have all that much time to write, though I will try to write whenever I have a free moment, so hopefully it won't be too long await for Part Two.  
Anyway, please enjoy the final chapter of Part One.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

One more day to go.

I wake to this thought the next morning, curled tightly within Finnick's embrace. I lay there, not thinking of anything, or rather, trying not to. My thoughts are too dark these days and I want to stay as far away from them as possible.

My stomach rolls and I know that today is not going to be a good day.

I struggle out of Finnick's arms, causing him to grunt at my desperate shoves to make him let go of me before I'm dashing for the bathroom, heaving my guts up and throwing up all of last night's dinner down the toilet.

"Annie?" Finnick is kneeling down beside me and is pulling my hair back from my face as I continue to be sick. "Annie?"

"Nerves." I gasp or sob for I can feel tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Is that all?" he asks and I look at him sharply or as sharply as one who is still throwing up last night's dinner can.

"Rich capital food?" I lie, though it is half true. Capital food is far too rich for someone who has spent most of her life living off gruel and the blandest seafood that the Capital itself doesn't want.

This seems to satisfy him, so I take the chance of being relieved that he still doesn't know about my pregnancy. I'm not in the mood to break his heart. I'll be doing that soon enough as it is.

Once he's sure that I'm done being sick, Finnick leaves me to have my shower and returns to his own room before my prep team arrives.

I'm confused as to why they need a full day to get me ready for a three minute interview but Finnick simply winked at me and left me to continue wondering.

Once I've finished my shower, I returned to my bedroom to find that my prep team is already there waiting for me.

Enyia gives me a shy but warm smile while Cersie and Sansia are excitedly babbling about the day to come. Without protest or complaint I surrender myself to their clutches and let them do whatever they want to me to make me look "beautiful" for my interview.

My team works on me for well into the day, not allowing me to leave my room at all, having all my meals being brought in for me.

For awhile they talk about dying my skin an ocean blue colour but thankfully Enyia talks the other two out of that idea and instead they decided to leave my skin it's natural tanned, freckled self but keeping with the original ocean blue theme, they stencil patterns on blue, green and silver waves and swirls up and down my arms.

They put fake nails onto my recently destroyed ones and painted those with the same blue, green and silver theme. I wasn't sure how I was going to use my hands with these shovels on the ends of each of my finger tips, but I smiled all the while as they put them on me.

My hair is once more curled into soft waves, with pieces of it braided here and there into an elaborate hairdo at the back of my head, pieces of shell and coloured glass are also weaved into my hair. At first I thought I would look terrible and overdone but by the end I am pleased with the end result.

My face caused a few problems, Cersie and Sansia wanted to paint my lips and eyelids blue while shading my cheeks with green, but once again Enyia won out and my face was left more or less alone, except for some faint blue eye shadow over my eyes and my cheeks are dusted with silver, so that my face sparkles in the right light.

Overall I think I looked quite pretty. Of course, I don't look anything like me, just like with the Opening Ceremony, but that's alright. I don't really want to be me at the moment. I don't mind hiding behind all this makeup and designs and Oh, my dress that Eyria has spent the last couple of days perfecting, as Enyia gravely informed me before giving me a wink and a wide smile that made my more girlish side feel excited about my dress.

And oh, my dress.

Eyria came in with my dress soon after I was finished being prettied up, smiling widely when she saw me as she walked into my room carrying a long grey bag, obviously containing my interview dress.

"Nervous?" She asked me as she looked me up and down and played a little with my hair, getting it just right.

I nod.

She smirked.

"Don't be. Not in this dress." She informs me before commanding me to close my eyes. I do so, all the while trying to keep as still as possible as my prep team removes my robe – leaving me know completely naked – and slip me into my dress.

"Keep your eyes closed."Eyria commands as I'm blindly helped into my shoes which I'm delighted to find are simply a type of slipper with a back to them that covers my heel so that my feet won't slip out of them. I'm sure they're not actually slippers, but they're as comfortable as any of the slippers that I've tried in the Capital these last few days. Just maybe a tad firmer and more walkable.

I feel them fuss around me and add the final details to me and to the dress – it's hard to keep my eyes close when I can hear and feel them all moving about adjusting this and retouching that – but after while – it feels like forever – I feel their hands all leave me and I hear them all take a step back and I told softly by Eyria to open my eyes.

Oh…

"Oh," I whisper as I look at the strange girl staring back at me from the floor length mirror. The girl looking back me is extremely pretty, amazingly pretty, prettier even than Serendipity from District One.

And…

I look like me again.

Somehow, I don't know when, but in those moments when my eyes were closed and I was being put into my dress and the final touches were being made, I turned back into me again.

I wasn't sure if I was happy about that, not when I had accepted and been content with spending the evening looking like Capital Tribute Annie instead of everyday, normal Annie.

I take a step towards the mirror, running my hands over my dress.

It was quite simple really, but oh so beautiful.

It was a soft blue and green gown with gentle hints of silver thrown in. The bodice of it is tight, showing off my breasts and the curve of my waist. The waist is beaded with blue and green gems with thick silver threads decorating and weaving around them. And the skirt is made up of different layers blue and green fabrics, called tulle netting, much like my Opening Ceremony dress, but this one, I like this gown better. It's more me. I would never wear anything like this back home, but I could at least see myself in a dress like this, if there was a chance back home to wear something as exquisite this.

"You look truly beautiful." Eyria says while the rest of my team simply sigh in unison. Cersie and Sansia look close to tears.

I duck my head blushing.

"Thanks. But only because of you guys." I add and Cersie and Sansia actually burst into tears. I send a questioning look at Eyria and Enyia but they both give me returning looks of not to ask.

When it came apparent that Cersie and Sansia couldn't pull themselves together, the two of them were dismissed and Eyria had me walk around my room in my dress and shoes. I have no trouble at all and I feel completely at ease.

"Ready for the interview?" Enyia asked smiling at me.

I looked down at my dress and gesture down at it before I speak.

"This part of me is, can't say about my mouth though."

Enyia laughs openly while Eyria smiles slightly, saying, "I'm sure the mouth part of you will be fine too."

"I hope so. I don't want to say anything embarrassing in front of all those people." And the rest of Panem, since the interviews are broadcast live all over the country.

I absently touch my stomach as I continue to turn this way and that in front of the floor length mirror, still admiring my beautiful gown.

"You won't. You'll be fine. Just remember to smile and just answer Caesar's questions as honestly as you can without betraying yourself." Eyria advises me and I nod.

"Ok."

"Good. Right, well, it's almost time to go down, so why don't we go show you off to everyone else." Eyria says, almost chirpily – a very strange sound compared to her usual husky, sexy tone of voice, but I guess she was just trying to cheer me up.

We meet up with the rest of the District Four crowd in the living room of our apartment. I can't help but grin ever so slightly when I see I've caused several of our previous Victors to do double takes of me and have caused their mouths to drop.

Finnick shot a couple a few dirty looks, but grinned at me, though I detected an ever so slight look of worry in his sea green eyes. I want to ask him wants wrong but I don't get a chance since we are being bustled into the elevator by Stansen who is close to hysterics with excitement.

I glance at Merle, who still looks unhappy but besides from his frown, he looks quite dashing in his dark blue suit and tie, his hair has been gelled to look like he's spent the day down by the ocean. Or I'm guessing that's the effect that they were going for.

I swallow nervously as the doors of the elevator open and we all step out. Stansen herds us to go stand with the rest of the tributes that are being lined up behind stage.

I shoot Grandma and Finnick desperate looks but they both smile back at me encouragingly and I feel, despite myself, a sense of calm pass over me.

We are seated behind stage in order of our districts and then boy girl. I'll be the eighth tribute to be interviewed.

I lean back in my chair listening half heartedly to Caesar Flickerman introducing himself to his audience, his brief speech on the Opening Ceremony and our scores yesterday before he calls Jeopardy Glitterman to take the stage.

Jeopardy looks delighted when his name is called and he shoots the rest of us a cocky, over-confident smile as he struts on to the stage in his black and gold suit. There is a huge cheer for him when he walks on stage, waving and blowing kisses to the audience.

I watch one of the monitors that are set up backstage, snorting as I watch one ridiculous woman with a purple hairdo faints when one of Jeopardy kisses are blown her way.

Jeopardy's angle is charming and confident. He has the whole audience wrapped around his little finger by the end of his first sentence, a talent that I've only ever seen one of person have. And that person is of course Finnick and he doesn't even need to open his mouth to have people – women – wrapped around his little finger.

When it's Serendipity's turn for her interview with Caesar, it is obvious immediately that she is determined to outdo her brother. She received a just as loud cheer from the audience as her twin and she looks gorgeous in her sparkling white and silver gown, her golden curls tumbling down her bare back – the gown has no back to it, only a thin ribbon tied at the back of her neck to keep her dress up. There is also very little front to the gown I might as well also mention, what with the neckline cutting right down her cleavage stopping just before her belly button. You would think with this dress, she would play the sexy angle for all its worth but she doesn't.

She is also charming, like her brother, but a different kind. Her charming is more natural somehow and she has a sweetness to her that makes the audience hang on to her every word. From where I'm sitting I can see Jeopardy pouting at a monitor as he watched his sister interview.

Cole's interview with Caesar seemed to go by very quickly, since it was obvious that Cole didn't want to say much, wasn't interested in saying much, and was happy to simply glare at the audience. Jade interview on the other hand was… bubbly. I've never seen the girl say so much and she said a lot… about nothing. And the more I listen to her and her answers she gave Caesar's questions, how easily she described how she was going to win the games, made me all the more afraid of her. She is huge and menacing but I also think she might be a tad insane.

It's just a feeling, but I've always had this ability, a gift if you will, to sense when there is danger near to me. There are a few times my ability has failed me, but a lot of the time, it hasn't and this gift of mine was raising its head now and was firmly telling me to stay by all means possible away from this girl. If anyone was going to cause my death in these games, it would be this girl.

District Three's tributes are both very quiet and even with Caesar trying to help them along with their interviews, I knew that they would become quickly forgotten – unless one of them wins, but looking at the two, it seems doubtful that they will, but District Three has surprised Panem before so maybe this year…

Merle is as nervous as I've ever seen him as his own interview draws near. I find this odd since I've seen and heard him speak at Assemblies at school and before and after Swimming or Running meets and he was a natural at it, so why now, he would grow suddenly nerves about speaking in front of a crowd was beyond me.

I want to say something, offer some kind of comfort but my own mouth is dry and all possible things that I could say to him all sound hollow and stupid in my head. And besides, he'd probably take whatever I ended up saying the wrong way, so I stay silent and so does he. But when he's name is called for him to head up on stage for his interview, I actually manage to wish him luck and I actually get a small smile in return.

"Yeah. You too." He heads up on stage. I watch his interview far more closely than I watched the others. He is nervous, but he hides it well and it's not long before he and Caesar are bantering away at each other.

His interview goes by way too fast for me and suddenly it is my turn to be up on stage.

I stand up from my chair, hands shaking as I smooth down my lovely gown. I try to walk on to stage with my head held high, but I don't quite manage it, but I do manage to smile at the audience and they cheer loudly when they see me. Too loudly. Everything is so noisy here.

I try blocking out all their noise and simply focus on Caesar who is smiling widely at me as I make my way over to where he stands, holding out a hand towards me.

Even though I am nervous, seeing his face actually calms me, because even though this is the first time I've physically met this man, I've known him all my life, and he gives me a sense of familiarity, even with his wacky appearance. With a face that has virtually stayed completely the same for decades, powdered pure white. The same ceremonial suit that is midnight blue dotted with what look like a thousand tiny light bulbs that twinkle like stars. His hair style has also remained the same throughout all his years of hosting the games, the only change he makes to it is dying it a different colour for each Hunger Game. This year it is a brilliant gold colour.

I shake his outstretched hand and follow his gesture to take a seat in one of the comfy chairs that have been set up on stage.

"I think someone is a little stage-shy." I hear him say suddenly and I feel myself blush while he chuckles good-naturedly.

"It's quite alright. We don't mind, do we?" Caesar calls out to the audience and they loudly cry out back to him 'no'.

"It's adorable, honestly." He says turning his attention back to me with a wide, encouraging smile.

I smile back.

"Thank you." I say, ducking my head a little and hear Caesar chuckle again, before he starts firing off questions at me. Most are simple and I answer them with as much honesty as I can without betraying anything that I'm truly feeling.

However when we're nearing the end of my interview, he throws a rock into the comfortable little pond of water that I had settled myself into during the interview, causing huge ripples within it.

"A pretty girl like you?" he chides lightly as I shake my head forcibly at what he had just asked me, "Not have a boyfriend? Impossible." He looks towards the audience who are all erupt into a sort horrified gasp.

"I don't." I say, but I sound too high and it's obvious to all that I am lying.

I glance desperately towards Grandma and Finnick who both simply smile grimly back at me, gesturing for me to make something up. I tried to remember all the advice Coral gave me yesterday about these sorts of questions; I know we covered them at some point before she became overly frustrated with Finnick and me.

"Oh," Caesar chuckles, "but there's someone you like." he says with a light tease to his voice.

I gulp, forcing my brain to work; only it was making me remember my interview with President Snow from a few days back. Why, oh why was I remembering _that_ at time like _this_?

Devon Cree.

What? Oh…

Now was the perfect time to start protecting Finnick and the baby for the long-run. If I start dropping hints about Devon and me now, here in this interview, later on when the baby is discovered the Capital and the rest of Panem will assume from this interview - and from any other information that they might find - that Devon is the father of my baby, not Finnick

"Well," I say softly, dropping my head so that I'm now looking into my lap, my facial features becoming sad, "It's complicated."

"Oh?" he asks. He looks the audience and I can hear their sighs of sympathy for me. "How so? Do you feel like he doesn't know that you even exist? I'm sure he does now."

"Oh, it's not that. There's a bit more to it than that." I say, forcing my sadness into my voice.

"Does he have a girlfriend?" Caesar asks gently and I shake my head, thinking carefully as to where I want this whole thing to head. If I'm not careful with what I say here, I could trap myself later on.

I look a Caesar with sober, grief-filled eyes and say in a quiet, but slight choke-filled voice, "he's dead. He died a month ago."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Finnick blink and I actually feel like laughing when he actually yanked his ear as if to make himself believe that he was still walking around with the living. The wince he pulled when he did this was obvious proof to him that he was and now he was looking at me with a questioning gaze.

He didn't look mad, simply curious and a little confused, but not mad. Not yet.

Caesar looks properly stricken and the whole audience give a dismayed, grief-filled sighing gaps.

"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry. We all are, aren't we?" the audience cry back their sympathy and I shoot them a sad, but strong smile.

"It's alright." I say trying to sound strong and yet still trying to appear fragile with grief. I thought I was doing pretty well for myself, since I seem to be making my grandmother and Finnick believe my acting. "I'll always remember him and he'll always be close to me." I say and Caesar pats my hand. He actually looks genuinely sad for me.

I smile at him and say in a small but strong voice, "and I'll always have a part of him with me." Just to add a something for the quicker minded to chew on.

He smiles back at me.

"So you'll be winning for him?" he asks and I nod.

"Yes, I'll be winning for him." I shouldn't have looked at Finnick when I said this. I really, really shouldn't have, but I couldn't help it. And the smile he gave me was worth the very high risk I had just made, the chance that I had just ruined everything that I had just built in this interview to protect him.

"Best of luck to you, Annie Cresta. Best of luck. Annie Cresta of District Four!" Caesar cries as we stand up from the chairs and everyone in the audience cheer loudly. He kisses my hand before motioning for me to exit the stage.

I leave it with my head held high and I don't stumble once, though I feel immediately tired the moment I'm back stage.

"You're a very impressive actress, Miss Cresta. You actually had me almost believing you." I jump about a foot into the air. I hadn't even noticed that on this side of the stage there was no one about. Well, I saw now why.

"President Snow." I'm ashamed to say I squeaked out his name.

He comes to stand in front of me and I'm almost overcome with the desire to gag from the mixed smells of blood and roses.

"Good evening Annie." He says pleasantly enough.

"Was it enough?" I asked and he looks amused. "To protect everyone I care about?"

"You have started a nice place to work with for when your condition becomes known, so I don't see why not." And I start to breathe a sigh of relief just as he adds, "If you can keep to the story."

I look him hard in the eyes, which is hard because his eyes really are snake-like and I want to look away and hide, "I can and I will. I'll do anything."

"I thought as much." He agreed with a smile. "A smart girl like you would. But I'm just wondering just how smart a girl you really are."

"Meaning?" I ask stiffly

"Meaning are you smart enough to do yourself the favour of staying away from him? People, as frustrating as they are, are prone to being curious and ask questions where questions are not wanted to be asked. Do really want to run the risk of someone asking the wrong question to the right person?"

"Finnick's too valuable to you. Why ruin him over something like this?" I asked, wondering if I really was such a smart girl after all.

Snow tilts his head to the side and regarded me through slightly narrowed eyes, as if he was seeing me for the first time, or maybe he was just seeing me in a whole new light.

"I can do worse things to him." He agreed after a moment and I feel cold all over.

"Don't hurt him. Please." I whisper and he looks amused once more.

"Him? My dear, as you've said, he is far too valuable to me, but there are others who are not…" he gave me a look and I feel cold once more, this time in the pit of my belly, where my baby was growing.

"I'll stay by my story for as long as I live." I promise, which I was guessing not very long, if the glint in his eyes was anything to go by.

"Good girl. Well, good night Annie Cresta. Good luck tomorrow and may the odds _ever_ be in your favour." He makes to leave and I'm startled to realise that the only reason he was here at all was because of me.

I stare after him open mouth.

"What was that all about?" I heard a deep, furious voice growl out from behind me and I fought back a groan.

"How much did you hear?" I ask with a sigh as Finnick came advancing towards me, looking quite murderous.

"Enough." He snapped. "Now what was that all about? And don't say you don't know and he was being all cryptic because you seemed to have a pretty good idea as to what he was talking about."

"Can we talk somewhere else?" I beg and we both hear the buzzer for the boy of District Five interview finishing go off.

His mouth set in a hard, straight-line as he drags me out of the building and back towards the Training Centre and our floor.

I don't know what everyone else was thinking, and this is hardly staying away from him as Snow had instructed me to do, but I wasn't sure if anyone actually recognised us, not with all the dressed up people on the street, laughing, drinking, cheering as they watch our interviews on the big screens that are set up on various different buildings.

When we are safely in my room, Finnick all but explodes at me.

"What is going on? Why did he come down to see you, you especially? And what the hell was with your interview? The end?"

"Jealous?" I asked stupidly and he looks so mad I think he might finally snap like I've heard some Victor's doing. They lose what little they have left of whatever holds them sane, lose whatever they have left of their humanity. They lose it and you suddenly have a rogue killing machine on your hands. They, the Capital and Peacemakers, try and keep it all hushed up but snippets slip out around Panem anyway.

"Look," I say trying to calm him down, "it was nothing. I was just trying to divert attention from you, that's all. Did you want me to spill out to all of Panem that I'm in love with you and we have a relationship?" and a baby.

"So you brought up Devon instead?" he snapped.

I blinked surprised he had made the connection. Finnick and Devon weren't exactly what you'd call close. They wouldn't have even spoken to each other if it weren't for them before being friends with me.

"He was the logical choice. He was the only male friend that I had that I was truly close to, besides you, so if anyone asks, people can say that they guessed he and me were in a relationship together, that it was possible that it happened without their knowing. Besides," I add a little harshly that it hurts my own ears, "he's dead now and he has no family, so they can't hurt him in any way."

This seems to cool his head for the time being, but another thought crosses his mind and he looks mad again.

"What did he mean by your "condition"?" he asked in a low growl and I closed my eyes. He really did hear basically everything.

"You're so thick sometimes." I sigh and sit down upon my bed. This would be the last night I slept in it, I realised with a start and I suddenly feel hot tears start down my face.

Why was he yelling at me when tomorrow I would be fighting for my life in the Hunger Games?

"Annie." He's voice softens and he comes to kneel down beside me. "Tell me what's going on."

I shook my head, tears still falling down my cheeks.

"Annie."

"I can't."

"Annie, please, tell me what's going on."

I shook my head again. "I can't."

"Annie." He ran a hand against my cheek, rubbing the tears from my eyes with his thumb. His other hand came to rest upon my waist. I saw his eyebrows forward slightly as he felt the slight swell between my hips though my dress and I hold my breath.

"Annie?"

I just smile sadly up at him and quietly watched his already shattered heart shatter a little bit more as his mind finally connected all the little things he had noticed being strange about me these last couple of months.

"Annie."

And then he was kissing me with so much love that I felt as if my heart would explode, even though I knew both our hearts were breaking.

_End of Part One_

_**I was looking for a breath of life  
For a little touch of heavenly light  
But all the choirs in my head sang, no, oh oh**_

_**To get a dream of life again  
A little vision of the sun at the end  
But all the choirs in my head sang, no, oh oh**_

_**But I would need one more touch**_  
_**Another taste of heavenly rush**_  
_**And I believe, I believe it so, oh oh oh**_

_**And I would need one more touch  
Another taste of divine rush  
And I believe, I believe it so, oh oh oh**_

_**Whose side am I on? Whose side am I?**_  
_**Whose side am I on? Whose side am I?**_

_**And the fever began to spread  
From my heart down to my legs  
But the room is so quiet, oh oh oh**_

_**And although I wasn't losing my mind**_  
_**It was a chorus so sublime**_  
_**But the room is too quiet, oh oh oh**_

_**I was looking for a breath of life**_  
_**A little touch of heavenly light**_  
_**But all the choirs in my head sang, no, oh oh**_

_**To get a dream of life again  
A little vision of the sight at the end  
But all the choirs in my head sang, no, oh oh**_

_**It's a long way and it's come to claim her**_  
_**And I always say, we should be together**_  
_**I can see below, 'cause there's something in here**_  
_**And if you are gone, I will not belong here**_  
_**(Not belong here, belong here, belong here)**_

_**And I started to hear it again**_  
_**But this time it wasn't the end**_  
_**And the room is so quiet, oh oh oh**_

_**And my heart is a hollow place**_  
_**For the devil to dance again**_  
_**But the room is too quiet, oh oh oh**_

_**I was looking for the breath of a life**_  
_**A little touch of heavenly light**_  
_**But all the choirs in my head sang no**_

_Breath of Life by Florence and the Machine_

* * *

**Author's Note:** So that's it for Part One. I hope you all very much enjoyed this fanfic as much as I enjoyed writing it. I was thinking I might post up a list of all the Tributes, with their ages and what District they're from if any of you are interested. I've named all my tributes, even the ones who sadly get killed in the bloodbath... Poor kids. I felt terrible killng them off and I expect I will feel even worse when I kill the rest of them off.  
**Disclaimer:** So obviously I don't own the song at the end of this fic, Breath of Life by Florence and the Machine - if you haven't heard it yet, go and listen to it. I think it's a great song to go with this fanfic and for the Hunger Games in general.  
Ok, so I'm done... for now. Thanks for reading, reviewing and favouriting, it meant a lot to me, and hopefully I will hear from all of you again when Part Two is posted up.  
Bye for now.

SapphireShell91


	13. Part Two: Chapter Thirteen

**Author's Note: **Okay, so I know that originally I said that I was going to make each Part a separate story, but I've decided against that. I'm just going to write them all into one fic. It makes it easier, all up. At least that's how I feel.  
It still might be awhile for Part Two to be completed. I've only written five or so chapters for it. I'm writing some today - hence my posting this chapter - as this weekend I don't have any major work that I need to have done for next week, but it'll still be awhile before Part Two is done. But it is being written, so don't worry this fanfic will be done... eventually. Hopefully if I can keep writing as I am this weekend, I'll get another three or so chapters down.

Anyway, please enjoy the first chapter of Part Two, chapter thirteen. And as always, reviews are much loved!

* * *

**Part Two**

**THE GAMES**

**Part Two's Summary:**_ Annie Crestar is seventeen years old and had no wish to be District Four's next girl tribute. Two more years and then she would have been saved from the Games; only fate has other plans for her._

_Now she is the District Four's female tribute for the 70th Hunger Games and she fears that her days are numbered. Winning will make you famous. Losing means certain Death. But Annie Cresta has more to lose than most other tributes in these terrible games. It is not only her life that is being threaten by these games but also the life of her unborn child. Annie must win these games for her child to be born, but at what cost to herself?_

_The Games are about to begin and Annie isn't even sure she'll live past the Bloodbath. And with allies Merle and the tributes from District One and Two, who needs enemies?_

**Chapter Thirteen**

I wake up the next morning feeling terrified. Even though I'm in the warmth and safety of Finnick's arms, I'm scared.

I know what today is.

I know what will happen today and I am so, so scared.

A tiny sob erupts from behind my pressed lips and I can feel tears starting to burn behind my eyes.

Stop it! Stop being stupid! Tears won't save you! Tears will do you nothing, so stop!

"Annie?" I try and brush the few stray tears that have rolled down my cheeks, but it is no use for when Finnick takes hold of my chin and pulls it towards his face, he runs his thumb down my tear stained cheek.

"I'm so weak." I whisper, rubbing my face with both my hands.

"No, Annie, you're not. You're not weak. There is nothing weak about crying." I snort behind my hands.

"Annie." He says trying to pull my hands away from my face, "you have nothing to be ashamed of. You're allowed to be scared. I was." he kissed my cheek, "and I am. I'm terrified right at this moment."

I let out a small frustrated growl.

"I should never have told you about…"

"The baby? Are you kidding me? I'm still mad at you for taking so long _to_ tell me!" He grumbled back at me.

"I only found out about the baby a couple of days ago." I reminded him and he let out a few more grumbles, as well as few colour curses directed towards the Capital and it's President.

"And I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to hurt you any more than I know you already are. I was just trying to protect you, like you're always protecting me." I add quickly and a little loudly because even though I've been reassured by Finnick over and over again that my bedroom isn't bugged, I still feared that the Capital might somehow hear Finnick's curses and punish him for saying them.

"And Snow scared you too." He added and I squirmed against him before sighing.

"What can he possibly do to you that won't damage some part of his master plan?" It's sort of ironic how Finnick "job" is the main thing that is keeping him safe from Snow.

"He can take you and the baby away from me." He says in a sombre voice and I feel immediately deflated once more, regretting over and over again for adding the baby on to his already huge list of things to worry and be scared about.

We don't talk much after that.

We simply lie in the bed together, holding each other, dreading the moment that we are separated. Possibly forever.

We get up just before dawn.

I am trembling and not from the pre-dawn chill because the air conditioning in the apartment is blasting warm air into the room.

Finnick holds me close to him, trying to calm me and himself – he is trembling as badly as I am – and whispers some final words of advice into my ear, though I don't really hear what he is saying.

I do hear him telling me that he loves me and the baby more than anything else in the world and that he would get us out, he would get us home again.

"I love you too." I mumble softly back to him, hugging myself close to him.

He kissed my mouth, almost chastely because he has to leave my room before Eyria arrives to get me ready for the games.

He leans down and kisses my belly, his hands resting on either side of my waist. I can hear the mumble of his voice as he talks to the baby, before he once more stands to his full height and kisses me again.

"Find water. Survive the bloodbath and then find water."

Then he leaves and I am alone and my trembling is so bad that I have to sit down upon the bed to keep myself from falling down.

Eyria comes for just at dawn, her eyes solemn and her voice doesn't have its usual husky, sexy sound to it.

Eyria dresses me in a simple shift before guiding me to the roof of the Tributes apartment building, a place I had never been before, though now I wish that I had because the view of the Capital from the roof top is spectacular, even in dawn light.

A hovercraft suddenly appears above our heads and ladder is dropped for us to climb up. Or so I thought. The moment I placed my hands and feet on to the ladder, they are immediately stuck there by some kind of current that glues me to the ladder while I'm lifted inside the hovercraft.

Once I'm inside, I thought the current would stop and I would be release, only it doesn't and I am still stuck to the ladder as a woman in a white lab coat walks over to me with a syringe. My eyes widen at the length of it.

"Now, Annie, this is your tracker for the Games. The stiller you are while I do this, the more efficient I can be while placing it into your arm.

I try not to cringe away from the needle and I force myself to look away during the sharp pain of the needle inserting the metal tracking device into my arm, deep enough under the skin that you can't use a sharp object to dig it out.

Well, I guess you still could but not without causing serious damage to your arm. And I guess the Gamemarkers are hoping that you'll be more preoccupied with trying to stay alive/kill other tributes than try and run the risk of removing to your tracker.

Wouldn't want to lose a tribute now, would they?

As soon as the tracker is in place, the ladder releases me. It happens so suddenly that I actually stumble, causing woman to grab my arm to keep me balanced, none to gently I might add. She sniffed at me as the ladder is once more lowered and Eyria is brought up from where she was still standing on the roof.

She looks at me sympathetically when she sees me rubbing the arm that had been injected with the tracker, also the arm that the woman in the white coat had grabbed to keep me from falling.

An Avox man, maybe in his late fifties with palest blue eyes I had ever seen gestured for us to follow him as soon as the woman in the white coat leaves. He directs us to a room where breakfast has been laid out for us.

I look at the delicious food before me thinking that there is no way that I can stomach even a mouthful of the stuff, but Eyria tells me to eat in the same commanding tone that my grandmother at times uses when I'm not doing something that I am not suppose to be doing.

So with a sigh, I load up my plate and start to eat. Half way through breakfast though, I have to get up and throw up in the toilet in the next room with Eyria holding back my hair as I do so. Then she forces me to eat more food, selecting some of the blander foods for me to eat in hopes that my belly – and the baby – won't reject it and make me sick again.

I can't afford to be feeling nauseous today, or any day really during the games, but today is the bloodbath and I need to be feeling close to hundred percent or I'll be as good as dead.

"I hate this." I mumbled, rubbing my belly in a soothing manner.

"It gets better I hear." Eyria reassured me gently. "The first couple of months are rough because you're body is trying to adjust to all the changes that it has to make to accommodate your growing baby's needs."

I nod but sigh all the same and stare out at the view of the city and then wilderness, leaning against one of the hovercrafts windows. The view from so high up is amazing.

To think, this is what a bird sees all the time, flying up so high, flying free. What I wouldn't give to be a bird right now.

The ride in the hovercraft last around half an hour before the view from the windows is suddenly blackened out. I gap in horror for a moment, before understanding that we must be nearing the arena.

I swallow thickly as I walk with Eyria back to where we entered the hovercraft via the ladder. The ladder falls down into a tube underground, into the catacombs that lie beneath the arena.

"Deep breaths, Annie." Eyria whispers as we listen to the instructions of where I need to go to get prepared for my game. The Capital calls it the Launch Room. More like Death's Door.

I look cautiously around the room. Everything in it is brand-new; never to be used again after my game, along with the arena, that will be preserved once the Games are finished. To be visited by the Capital residents in years to come.

I was told by Trout that Capital residents get these's great deals; one for example is to visit an arena for a month, and while there you can re-watch the Games that took place within it, go on tours all around the arena, catacombs and to all the popular death sites. And for a bit extra you can re-enact your favourite battles to the deaths.

I hadn't really believed him until I saw that very offer being advised on the Television in the living room of District Four's apartment during one of the rare moments I actually spent in front of that huge screen.

Trout had laughed loudly when he saw just how green I turned. That is until Finnick flick some mashed potatoes into his face. For an awful moment I had thought that two of them were going to fight. It looked like it might have come to that, only at the final moment Trout backed down and cursing went and washed his face while Finnick tucked back into his food, acting as if nothing had happen. It was in moments like those when I realise just how much respect and fear Finnick has directed at him, even by those who are older than him.

I wondered how he, as a fourteen year old boy, had felt being inside his own Launch Room. On camera he had always appeared very confident and cheerful; showing no fear at all, but in here, away from the cameras had he been panicky and fearing for his life like I was now.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before going and having a shower, cleaning my teeth as I showered.

After my shower, Eyria sat me down in front of a mirror and ran a brush through my hair.

"You usually wear it in a high ponytail, don't you?"

"A ponytail?" I asked before understanding what she means and I feel my cheeks redden in embarrassment so I simply nod.

"Well, I think we'll go for something a little different today." She says and she starts to braid my hair from the very crown of my head all the way down to past my shoulders. "Keep it out of your face. Can't have something as troublesome as hair falling or flying into your face in the most inopportune moment."

I nod again and look at myself in the mirror. I actually look a little fearsome with my hair in such a strict, formal hairstyle.

Soon after Eyria has finished with my hair, the clothes that I am to wear during my time in the arena arrive. The same for every tribute.

We both look down at the clothes, not saying anything before Eyria helps me dress in the simple underclothes, simple brown work trousers, similar to kind that are worn on long fishing trips, with a sturdy brown belt that has tiny pouches attached to it – all empty of course, but I know that if I survive the blood bath, they'll be useful for later – a dark brown shirt and a dark green jacket that falls to my thigh and has a hood.

I touch the material of it lightly. It reminds me of the jackets that are worn by select few – usually by the captain of a ship and his first mate – when they know that rough weather is coming while their far out in the ocean.

My feet are uncomfortable in the boots, but only, as I explained to Eyria when she saw my discomfort as I walked around in them to see how they fit, because I spend most of my time barefooted. A stupid thing really, when one spends a great deal of her time climbing rocks and searching for oysters and other creatures in the rock pools. But I have yet to cut my foot while climbing; I just hope this record holds true during the games.

"They'll be good when you need to run." Eyria soothed me.

I smiled back at her somewhat ruefully.

"I run best barefooted." I replied as I do another lap of the room in the boots. If they helped me live out these weeks, then I would wear them without complaint.

"Here." Eyria says as I walk past her as I continue to break in my boots – as well as my still protesting feet.

"Hmm?" I looked down at what she was holding out towards me and blink in surprise. I had completely forgotten about the medal that I had been given before I left District Four by my swimming coach.

"Your grandmother asked me to give this to you."

"Grandma?" I suddenly felt ill again.

I hadn't said goodbye to her. I said goodbye to Finnick, over and over again, but Grandma…

"Calm down. She told me to tell you that she loves you and that she knows that you can win, that you will win, you just have to play smart and be careful."

"But I still didn't say goodbye."

"I can tell her if you like." she offers as I take the medal from her and pull it over my head so that it now rested on top of my shirt. My seashell necklace was tucked under my shirt. I know a tribute can only have one district token, but since no one said anything about my medal and my necklace, I wasn't about to take either off.

"Thank you." I whisper.

"You could write her a letter…"but I shake my head.

"No, that really does sound like I'm not coming back. No, please just tell her that I love her too and thank her for all that she has done for me over the years and that I'll try my very best and – and remind her and Finnick that she must take her medication." Eyria looked a little amused when I finished but she nodded her head in understanding and promised to tell her all that I said.

The waiting was the worse part about this, waiting for the call that it was time to go, that the games were about to begin.

After awhile, I'm almost desperate for the games to begin, just to stop the agony of waiting. I know, I understand that I could be dead as soon as the Games begin, but the waiting would be over. I knew I was going to regret this type of thinking the moment I stepped onto the metal plate that would leave me up into the arena. But at this moment in time, I just wanted to get out of this blasted room.

"Don't wish the minutes away, you'll regret it." Eyria says as she stops me from pacing a path into the cerement of the floor.

"What?"

"I know that you're wishing right now for the waiting to stop, for you to be called and for the games to begin, but don't. Don't wish even these agonising minutes away, because every minute is precious. We live such a short time without wishing time away. So even though this is agonising, the waiting, the terror of what is to come, embrace these minutes, because you never know they…"

"They might be my last?" I whispered.

She cupped my face and forced me to meet her violet eyes.

"I don't want them to be, but…"

"They could be."

"A wise man said, oh so very long ago, before the world was like how it now is, that we should all live each day as if it were our last."

I frown at her.

"What? That's stupid."

"No, it isn't. Because what he's saying is to embrace the time that you are alive because tomorrow you might not be."

"So, you're saying I should embrace my time in the Arena?"

Eyria looked at me sadly.

"I'm saying that every minute that you are alive, make it count. You only live once, so make the most of it, even while you are in that-that place."

I stare at her, trying to understand what she is saying and what she isn't saying.

We sit down on one of the couches in the room, Eyria telling me about her life growing up in the Capital to pass the time. While it sounds like Eyria and her sister never had to want for anything, neither of them had grown up particularly happy.

She was just telling me how she got into designing costumes when a pleasant voice announces that it is time to prepare for launch.

My heart clenches and I can feel my breath starting to catch in my throat as I walk over to stand on the circular metal plate.

"You'll be fine." Eyria whispers, as she straightens my jacket. "Just run. Don't stay around, just run. Find water and stay hidden for as long as you possibly can."

"Are stylist allowed to give advice?" I ask weakly.

She smiles a sly little smile at me.

"Only to the tributes we like and think will win." I give her a dry look but when she hugs me I feel like crying.

"Win Annie Cresta. Win and come back to Finnick. Win for yours and his baby." I blink at her in surprise.

How had she known? How did she find out?

But before I can ask her a glass cylinder is lowered around me. I can see through the class that she is crying and I try to smile reassuringly back at her.

She puts her finger to her chin and tilts her head up and she smiles through her tears. Head held high, smile, show them you have no fear, that you are above them, the untouchable, all powerful ocean goddess.

I nod and straighten my shoulders, throw my head up high and smile. I have no fear, I will win! You just sit back and watch me!

The cylinder begins to rise.

For about fifteen or so seconds I am in complete darkness and then I am pushed into almost blinding light, into the open air.

For a moment I can't open my eyes because of the bright light. There is a slight wind blowing around me and I can hear what sounds like lots of water hitting more water.

Just as I'm regaining my sight, I hear the legendary commentator, Claudius Templesmith, his voice booming all around me, from all direction.

**"Ladies and Gentleman, let the Seventieth Hunger Games begin!"**


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Author's Note:** I'm watching Hunger Games right now, which has inspired (and reminded) me to update this fanfic as well as encouraging me to write another chapter. So here is Chapter Fourteen. Sorry about being so slack with my updates, I've just been too tired in the evenings and weekend to do any writing or even bothering to update. So yeah, sorry about that.  
I've been told by one of my mates at College (TAFE for any Aussies), who's been reading this fanfic as I've been writing it - I've been reading his as well - that Annie seems to have gotten more spunk and independence as well as becoming quite sarcastic in Part Two. I haven't really noticed, but then I'm actually writing Annie with her feeling how I think I would feel in if I was in the Hunger Games, but let me know if she is becoming out of character for you and I will try and fix that. My mate says he doesn't mind, that he actually enjoys reading Annie being mentally sarcastic and having a bit of spunk, but he did point out that this is quite different to how she was in Part One. My argument is, when you enter something like the Hunger Games, I think you would become a little different to how you are normally, because you would have, to survive mentally, I think. If you didn't, I think you'd lose your mind what with everything that is happening around you.

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

Sixty seconds.

That's the amount of time we are required to stand on our metal circles before the gong is sounded for us to go. Step off too soon and you'll find yourself without any legs.

Sixty seconds is the time we are given to take in our arena before we start fighting for our lives. Sixty seconds to figure out if the strategies that we worked out over the past couple of days will indeed work to our advantage. If not, figure out a new one. And fast.

I look at the Cornucopia; the giant gold horn shaped like a cone with a curled tail with a mouth about seven metres high, spilling over with things that could save all our lives. Food, containers filled with water, more weapons than you could possibly imagine, medicine, the list goes on. Strewn all around the Cornucopia are other supplies, the further they are away from the Cornucopia the greater the decrease of their value.

I am fast, faster than probably everyone else here. I could grab some good supplies from the mouth of the Cornucopia before anyone realised what had happen.

I look around me, taking in the arena.

We are in a flat section of a very steep valley. I can see high mountains all around me and when I listen hard, I can hear the sound I heard originally, a large amount of water falling on to more water. Almost like breakers breaking upon the rocks of the bay, but… different.

There is a forest all around me, lining the bases of the mountains.

But the forest doesn't really interest me nor do the mountains; it's the sound of the water that does. I could survive the whole Games if I can make it to the water I can hear.

The gong goes and I am off my metal plate immediately and shooting off in the direction that I'm sure the water I am hearing is in.

"CRESTA! Where are you going?" I hear Merle bellowing after to me and I, despite myself, stagger slightly in my run at the sound of his voice.

STUPID! He's going to kill me know.

I can hear it, the sound of metal cutting through air.

I double over and cartwheel away from the sound at the last moment. I then hear a wheezing gasp and a thud quite close to me.

My head snaps back to look behind me. A boy is lying, dead, behind me with Merle standing over him, a huge sword in one hand and was wrestling an axe out of the dead boy's death grip.

"Wha…" I stammer, not sure what had just happen.

He frowned down at me.

"What are you doing?'

"Running for my life."

"Why? Stay put, guard the Cornucopia, we'll stop them getting to you." and before I could say anything he had grabbed my arm and was dragging me back into the chaos, the screams of terror and pain, him shoving a spear into my hands and making me stand in the entrance of the Cornucopia.

What was going on?

Also, I have never seen so many kids running free from the bloodbath before, not in any of the games that I have seen in my life.

I didn't understand why this was until I saw Jade, saw how much she liked to take her time while killing her victims, torturing them first before slowly stabbing them in fatal areas and yet knowing they won't die immediately.

"JADE!" I hear Cole bellow out in frustration as he spears down one of the lingering kids. The kid dies quickly and without a sound. Probably didn't even know what hit her. "Kill the kid already and help us."

But it's too late, the kids are basically all gone and apparently the grand total of deaths during the bloodbath is six.

Nineteen of us left.

Has there ever been so many tributes still alive after a Bloodbath before? Not since the very early Games I'm sure. Though nearly none of them were able to grab any supplies that I saw and I know that while not many were killed, a great number of them were running wounded.

"Jade! What were you doing? Did you not see how many kids got away?" I heard Jeopardy complain.

"What was _I_ doing?" Jade sneered back at him, "What were you doing, all of you? Too scared of breaking a nail to do any real work?"

Already there is friction in this group and it's barely half an hour into the Games.

I looked around me at all the gear that we had at our disposal and noticed something odd. Looking closer and I knew that what I had just discovered was just about to cause even more friction within our happy little group.

"What's with you Cresta?" Merle asked suddenly, only now noticing that I was checking in various crates and backpacks that were still within the Cornucopia, checking varies water container.

"Um," I say feeling somewhat torn between being amused and horrified at my discovery, "we, um, we seem to have no food."

"WHAT?"

"No food… or water." I add as I pick up a water container and give it a good shake, before opening it to prove to the rest of them that the container is truly empty.

I almost laughed when I saw the looks of complete horror and panic that were written all over Districts Ones and Twos faces.

The four of them shoved passed me, forcing me out of the Cornucopia which was find by me because I wanted out of there and starting their own search, soon discovery that I was indeed correct.

"HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO US?!" Serendipity shrieked.

"To liven things up a bit? Maybe they think we've had it too easy in previous years and they want to offer us a challenge this year." Merle offered. Serendipity shot him a none to pleasant look. I didn't blame her for being unhappy. One of the main ways a tribute from another district wins the Games is for the Careers to run out of food and to then either starve to death or end up eating something poisonous because they don't have any survival skills beyond fighting.

"Shut up!" Serendipity snapped at him, before turning her glare on me, obviously noticing my amused smile and snarled, "Why didn't you kill her?"

Everyone is looking at me now and I can feel my heart starting to race. Should have just kept running.

"Because," Merle drawls, "she's useful."

"Oh, useful, fantastic! What can she do, magic food to appear?" Serendipity snapped.

"No, but she can find it." Merle replied calmly and Serendipity falls silent, though still glaring at me.

"That true?" Cole asked a thick, heavy voice that matches his huge frame completely. He's like a bear, a huge one, one wipe of his great paw and you're dead.

"Um, yeah." I say trying to sound confident while inside I just want to run and hope that I'm fast enough to miss Cole's spear, "but I think we should look for water first."

They all, with the exception of Merle, look at me strangely.

"Shouldn't we look for food first?" Jeopardy asked.

I shake my head, feeling a tad exasperated.

"No. We can survive a couple of days without food, but without water," I shake my head again, "staying hydrated during the games is one of the most important ways of keeping ones self alive. If you don't… well, you're easy pickings for anyone." I watch the Twin's gap at me while Merle and Cole nodded a long with what I was saying while Jade… Jade simply looked furious. Like I've personally insulted her or something.

"So first move is?" Cole asks.

"We find water." I say, trying to ignore Jade's glares, "I'm pretty sure there's a large body of water close by. Hear it? Water falling upon water, or breaking upon water." I shrug. "Either way, there is water somewhere close by, so we should head for it." I glance at Jade, "it'll be where all the other tributes will be heading." I add and I feel horrible for doing so, but it seems to pacify Jade and the others are more eager to come along, though as we start off I start to wish that they had just let me go and find the water by myself while they went hunting down food… or other tributes.

They are all boisterous and loud, pushing and shoving each other as we walk towards where I'm sure the large body of water is.

I want to tell them to shut up, by being as loud as they are, they're either attracting unwanted tributes or whatever beasts that the Gamemakers have thrown into these games to make them interesting or they're scaring away all potential food.

Biting down hard upon my tongue so as to stop myself from yelling at them - a sure way of getting a knife in my back I'm sure – and just kept walking, keeping my eyes and ears open for anything. But besides from the growing thunder of water and the almost endless green of the forest around us, I saw and heard nothing out of the ordinary.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a rabbit bolting away from us and felt some relief that at least we had some source of food, though I've never actually cooked rabbit and I wasn't sure how it was exactly done, but I've heard of the consequences of eating raw rabbit and personally I don't feel like experiencing them. Especially now…

I rest a hand briefly upon my belly which feels somehow more swollen in here, in the arena than when I was still in the Capital. Could a pregnant belly grow that fast simply over night? Or maybe it was just my imagination.

I drop my hand to my side and straight my shoulders though it is hard as I'm the one carrying all of the water containers in a large backpack – the largest in the Cornucopia - on my back while the others are all holding weapons. I dread to think how heavy my pack will be when all the containers are filled with water.

We break free of the trees and my mouth drops.

Before us is something that is like the ocean back home only much smaller and calmer, barely any waves are rolling upon the sandy beach. A lake… this is a lake.

And on the other side of the lake is a waterfall. A huge one, that crashes down upon the lake's surface like thunder, causing a rainbow to be thrown up from its spray.

I feel myself smile. How could something so beautiful be in these games?

"Oi, Cresta? You still in there?" Merle is snapping his fingers in front of my face causing me to blink and look away from the awesome sight and smack his hand away from my face.

"Ow, easy Cresta." He waves the hand that I smacked up and down, his face pulled into a somewhat comical hurt expression.

I actually felt myself smile at him.

"Oi, can we fill these water containers up already so that we can go and do something interesting?" Jeopardy complained where he stood on the beach, his sister echoing him.

"Well, you guys could always go and do something "interesting" and I can stay here, fill up the water containers and set up some nets." I say, rolling my eyes back at them.

"Oh, so you can sneak off and steal all the water? I think not, District Four." Jade sneers at me.

I blinked back at her.

Eh, what? Wait, that isn't actually a bad idea, but…

"I don't think she even thought of that Jade." Cole rumbles. Jade simply gives a snort before roughly yanking the pack of my back, causing me to stagger, and threw it to the ground.

"Hey," I say, "easy. They're pretty strong, but not that strong if you keep throwing them around like that. These have to last all of the games, don't you understand?" I asked her with annoyance. I hear murmured agreements around me.

"Look, there about thirty in here, so how about each of us take five water containers each and we're each responsible for our own containers? How does that sound?" I ask them all in exasperation. Once again I'm given strange looks, but when I start handing each of them their five water containers, none of them complain and each start heading for the water.

"You don't think they've poison it or something?" I ask Merle, who stares at me before looking thoughtfully over the lake.

"I don't think a large body of water could be poison, since it's so big. Why?"

"I just thought of it." I start biting my lip. "I think a large body of water can be poison or rather, um, what's the word," Merle shrugs. "It's starts with 'P' too." I wave a hand threw the air. "um, um… Oh, polluted. It could be polluted or something…"

"Or you could be over thinking things and the water is completely fine."

"You know, those are probably the last words of lots and_ lots_ of tributes during these games." I grumble as I follow him slowly down to the water's side.

"What this? You, afraid of water?" Merle teased and I scowled at him.

"NO! I'm just being cautious. I want to live you know and not die because I did something stupid!"

"Fine Cresta." He knelt down by the lake side and dipped his hand into the clear, blue water. He made a cup with his hands and took a sip. I waited holding my breath.

"Taste fine, quite sweet actually, almost like…" his face froze and started gagging. The others look up from where they're filling their water containers to over at us, where Merle is on all fours and choking.

"Oh, no, Merle." I drop my water containers on to the soft sand, my brain working in overdrive to try and remember some cure to being poison.

"Merle." I crouch down beside him, pressing a hand upon his trembling shoulder. " Merle? Merle…" freezing cold water hits me straight in the face and while I'm blinking it away, I hear Merle and the other's laughing.

Self-centre jerks!

"Jerk." I say as I storm away from him, wiping water from my face.

"You should have seen you're face." Merle howls after me but I ignore him, instead I walk along the beach – after I had picked up my pack and thrown my water containers back into it - looking down at my feet, searching. Searching, searching, searching… aha!

"Found Dinner!" I yell back down the beach at the idiots, who all come running up to see what "dinner" was.

When they are close and with a wicked smile, I throw the smelly, rotting fish right at Merle's face. He yelped and tried to duck, though it was too late and it still hit him, though only on the forehead.

"EW!" Serendipity shrieked, "That's gross! What is wrong with you!" she screamed at me.

I continue to smile as I shrugged back at her.

"Absolutely nothing. But you know what that means." I say to Merle who is giving me a half-hearted glare.

"What?"

"Dinner."

"I'm not eating that!" the twins shriek in sync.

"You won't be." I snort, "But don't you get what that rotten, smelly thing means?" I ask them, wondering if they all possess the minds of five years old because they've all been smack too many times over the heads with sword and clubs. Actually I know five year olds smart than these five!

"It means," I say when none of them get it, "that if there is one fish here, then there is probably whole schools of them," I finish with a roll of my eyes.

"Oh…"

"I don't like fish." Serendipity grumbled.

"Well then you can go catch yourself a nice, plump rabbit. I saw one while we were walking here, which means there is probably more of them about. See, plenty of food about, we just need to look carefully. Especially when it comes to finding greens and fruit." I add with a warning tone. I knew that I was at some point going to have to give them a lecture about editable plants soon or later before one of them really does go and poison them selves.

"We'll we've found water, so let's go." Jade snapped.

"Go where?" I ask in bewilderment.

She sneers at me.

"Where ever a poor tribute happens to be."

"Oh…"

"You got a problem with that?" Jade asked stepping closer to me and bearing down upon me. I was once again filled with the desire to run, but by sheer bravery – more like stupidity – I stood my ground and glared back at her.

"No." Though of course I did. Why did Merle have to yell out to me at the bloodbath? I could have been safely away from these murderous freaks by now. "But shouldn't we at least wait until nightfall? They'll be all running scared right now, but tonight, they won't be, they'll be slowing down, tired and weak, you cut up some quite badly today," I remind them all, hating myself all the while.

"So what do you want us to do instead?" Jeopardy asked impatiently.

"Start making traps and nets." Blank looks and I fight back a scream of irritation and exasperation. Why was I even bothering?!

"To catch food with!" I all but yell at them. "And catch the other tributes in too." I add so as to fully appease to the group. They look happier when I suggested this, not much happier, but I guess they saw some sense in what I was saying. But seriously, why wasn't I just leaving them to starve already? Clearly none of them had been paying even the slightest attention to any of the stations they had followed me around to on that second day of training.

Fighting back dark grumbles I start stomping back towards the Cornucopia.

"Where you going Cresta?" I hear Merle yell after me and I fight the desire to peg one of my water containers at his thick head. But why waste a perfectly good water container on his stupid head, thick as it clearly is, it might just break the container.

"To the Cornucopia."

"Why?"

Oh give me the strength not to hit the stupid, thick bastard!

"Rope! We need rope, don't we?"

Oh, give me the strength to not hit all the stupid, thick idiots!

"For the TRAPS!"

"Oh… right. Yeah, we'll need that, won't we?"

Argh!

Waving my arms in the air in frustration I continue stomping off, back into the forest, back in the direction we had come, back towards the Cornucopia. Which just goes to show how bright I am, since I was going back alone and almost completely unarmed except for my backpack of water containers and a small knife that I had attached to my belt earlier.

I stop in the middle of the forest, just now realising how stupid I really was and actually laughed. Yeah, now let every tribute close by know where you are, you're a genius Annie.

But I couldn't help it. It was such a stupid thing to do! So completely stupid and innocent thing to do. So trusting was I, forgetting that I was involved in a Game that could very well kill me because of my own stupidity by being exactly that, stupid!

I smack my palm against my forehead.

"Oh, I'm such an idiot."

I hear a rustle nearby and fight back a sigh. Wonderful… that was fast.

"I know you're there, you might as well come out." I say, feeling strangely calm. I wasn't injured… yet, so if all else fails, I can run. Which I was already moving myself into a position to do when the simple-minded, baby face boy from District Six came lumbering out from behind some trees.

He looked at me with bright, terrified blue eyes, clutching a arm that had clearly been hurt during the Bloodbath.

"Hey," I say and suddenly I'm more worried that the others have realised my foully, well maybe Merle has, and they've come after me since I know exactly what they'll do to this poor child trapped in a young man's body.

He doesn't say anything; he simply trembles from where he stands a few feet from me.

He's a big boy, despite his baby, dull and simple facial features; tall with big muscles. I would honestly hate to be hit by him if he ever got angry or scared. He might just kill me with one accurate punch.

I don't know what to do or say. A part of me desperately wants to take care of him, to give him a hug and tell him that everything will be ok. And another part me, a truly horrible, dark side of me that I never before knew I had, wants to kill him. Kill him now and quickly and spare him the torture and agony that I know other Tributes will put him through. I bet if I pulled out my knife and moved fast enough, I could kill him before he even knew what was happening, his simple mind moving too slow to process what I was doing.

"Titus…"

"What?" I ask, shaking myself away from my dark thoughts. The simple, baby-face boy smiles a full, wide smile and says, "Titus," again.

I stare at him, rattling my brain all the while as to why this meant something to me, why it sounded so familiar, like I had heard it several times before. Titus, Titus… Oh, Titus.

"Titus? That's your name, isn't it?" I feel all drive to kill him drain out of me as soon as I saw him beam, so delighted that I had spoken his name, that I felt sick to my core that I ever even thought of ending his simple life, even though I knew that by my killing him now would spare him a world of pain later on during these Games.

"Titus." He points to his chest happily, excitedly.

He looks at me expectantly and I give him a weak smile.

"Annie. My name is Annie." I was so going to regret this, I just knew it.

Titus beamed somehow even more brightly and repeated my name over and over again to himself.

Oh, no, what had I done?

"Look, Titus, you need to go. Leave here, alright."

"Annie?" his simple, baby-face is now confused and he looks even hurt.

"You-need-to-go. There are going to be some bad people coming this way, bad people who will hurt you, you know them. They hurt you this morning," I gesture to his bleeding, hurt arm and he looks at it and lets out a little whimper.

"Hurts."

"I know, but if you stay here, you'll be hurt more, do you understand, Titus? You have to leave or you'll be hurt more."

"Hurt more?"

"Yes, hurt more?"

"Annie, hurt?"

"No," not yet at least, "but you will be, so you need to go and hide somewhere, far away from here, ok."

"O-kay."

"Good. Now, off you go. Go in that direction." I point towards the mountains, which he looks to and gives a small nod.

"Go on." I wave my hands at him and he starts to lumber in the direction that I directed him in.

"Bye bye." He says as he waves a great hand back at me. I wave until he's out of sight before feeling deflated.

What had I just done?

Marlin and the others are probably ready to strangle me right about now. But how could I? How could I kill such an innocent, simple-minded boy in cold blood? I couldn't and I wouldn't.

I just prayed that this incident wouldn't come back to bite me.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yes, I know, I threw Titus in. And I know he's been over-used to the extreme in a lot of fics, but I actually have a reason for throwing him in. Several actually. But I'll only tell you a few now, the rest you'll just have to wait for.  
1. I'm actually interested in him since we know so little about him, meaning I can add my own twist to his character that I haven't read before. This version actually makes me depressed when I write and think about him since I think how this sweet, innocent-mind baby will become what he does.  
2. he's a means to an end, in someways, I need a reason behind something happens near the end of Annie's games, and he's the way to make it to happen. Doesn't make sense now, but it will.  
And 3. I'm a horrible person and I'm making Annie's life even harder.  
But the most importantly, I'm not adding him seemly for the sake of adding him - something that I've read a tad too often - and I'm not adding him to enhance the gore in this fic...'shudders'. I have reasons and purposes as to why he's in this fic, which you will all read in due cause.  
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please Review and if you have an suggestion or criticism - constructive, no flames - I'd love to hear them.  
Bye for now.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Author's Note:** Hey Everyone. Here is Chapter 15. It's a bit of a filler chapter, building more of the Career's personalities and Annie's interaction and thoughts about them and the games.  
Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

I ran the rest of the way to the Cornucopia, grabbing as many lengths of rope as I could possibly pack into and onto my backpack, thinking of another stupid thing that we had done during just our first few hours of being in the Arena… we had left the Cornucopia unguarded. Not that it really matter much, since we have no food or water to steal but we do still have weapons and loads of them.

I spin in a slow circle, checking over everything that we had packed into the Cornucopia before we had left to find water.

Yeah, we've been robbed.

Not much has been taken, barely noticeable compared to everything that we have left, but yeah, stuff has definitely been taken from our stash.

I smack my forehead with my palm.

How could we be so stupid?! Now there are armed tributes running around in the forest somewhere, ready to jump us.

"Why didn't they just torch the place? Or steal and hide all of the weapons. They must realise we're without food and water? So why not take what's left of our assets?" I mumble to myself. "Yeah, and then bring the wrath of the Careers down upon their heads, smart… but without food, water and equipment, they'd be doomed within a couple of days. Plus they'd have to figure out who did it… though Jade wouldn't care, she'd just wants to kill everyone."

I rub my temple, silently telling myself to stop thinking of ways to kill off my allies without actually getting any of their blood on my hands.

Speaking of which, they've possibly killed themselves off while I've been gone and I would have no idea. No Cannon's sound during the first day of the Games, usually there are too many deaths occurring, making it too difficult for the Gamemakers to keep track of, but today…

"Today, they've had a pretty boring first act." I say with a snort before once more sighing and with last length of rope thrown over my arm, I start heading back for the lake, though this I time I use my brain and I have a sword strapped to my hip. A small, light weight one, but after a few experimental swings of it, I felt that I could at least badly injure anyone who tried to attacked me. A spear was strapped my pack as well.

"Where you been?" Merle grumbles when I return to lake side and surprisingly everyone is alive, they even have some berries gathered. Nightlock, of course, but since none of them are dead, I'm pretty sure I can swap them for the blueberries that I've been gathering on my way back. Yes, once again not the smartest thing I could have done but I was hungry.

I dump my pack on to the sandy shore and tell Merle to start teaching the others how to make nets for catching fish – none of them look impressed by this suggestion – while I check out the water to see if I can catch us some lunch.

"Without a net?" Serendipity sneered at me.

"Hands." I say and wiggle my fingers at her. She frowns at me in uncertainty, while Merle gives me a nod of good luck.

I eye the water of the lake cautiously. It's fresh water, obvious since we can drink it, and while I have fished in the few fresh water rivers that are around District Four, I'm not as certain with my fresh water fish as I am with my ocean ones. I'm not sure how many fresh water fish are poisonous but it would be just my luck that they'd be the ones swimming around in this lake. Not to mention, there could also be one of the Capital's mutts swimming in here too.

Lovely and I was about to go and start paddling around in this unknown body of water. All the rules and restrictions that have been drilled into me as a child come roaring back as soon as I take off my boots and socks and roll up my pants.

"Don't go in too deep. You don't know anything about this lake, what its currents do or if it has any rip pools in it or even how deep it gets or how quickly." Merle calls to me unexpectedly.

"Gotcha." I say and step into the lake. It's cool but I don't mind it and continue to step in, taking care to watch my steps and the water ahead of me.

I get about waist deep before I stop, partially because I loose my nerve to go any deeper, but mostly because I now have a school of fish swimming around me, not close enough to grab yet, but if you are patient, they will be. They get used to your presence and swim closer and closer and closer to you, until…

As fast as I had been taught to be by my Dad and my teachers, I snatched one of the fishes that swam just that little bit too close to my quiet, un-moving form out of the water, gave it a sharp wack over its head, killing it smartly before tying it to the rope I had brought with me around its tail. I then stopped moving.

I went through the whole process about ten or so more times before heading back to shore with over a dozen fish, over to where the others are just finishing off their nets and couple of rough traps and setting up a fire. Thankfully, starting up a fire is a skill that even Serendipity possesses.

"We should probably head back to the Cornucopia." I say when I walk up to them.

"Why?"

"Why? Because we left it unguarded for one thing and stuff could have been taken." I thought better than to actually mention that stuff had already been stolen, "Plus we need to get some stuff, equipment and such, to make camp."

"She's right." Cole says before the others can argue. "Let's pack up all this and head back and get some stuff together, and then," he looks towards Jade who looks ready to explode again, "we'll go hunting."

"We could have been hunting now if those bastard had simply given us food like they did every other bloody year!" Jade snarled angrily as we start packing up.

She continues to growl out complaints the whole way back to the Cornucopia. While I'm left to cook lunch, the others sort out things in the Cornucopia between them.

I feel a little sick that I'm being left out during this rather important sort, certain that I'm going to be left with the most useless of items.

I sigh and keep cooking the fish, thankful that I had used my brain before hand and had thought to grab a few vital things while I was grabbing the rope.

I thought about the snares that we had set up in a few strategic spots on the way back the Cornucopia, wondering if they'll catch anything; animal or tribute.

"Is it done yet?" Serendipity complained loudly nearby. I jumped a little when I realised she was right beside me.

"Almost." I turn each of the fishes carefully over the flames, before handing her one of the cooked ones.

"Are you sure its… safe?" she asked nervously as she sat down beside me.

"Um, yeah." I take another cooked fish from by the fire and cut it fully open with a practised hand while Serendipity cringed. When I had been gutting the fish, she had looked close to being sick.

I cut out some cooked, white fish meat and take a small experimental bite of it. I had cleaned and gutted the fish exactly as I had been taught, as well as looked for all the signs that suggested that it might be of a poisonous variety – and saw none, obviously - but still you couldn't be too careful.

I wait a minute or so, Serendipity watching me closely and cautiously for any ill effects that the fish might had caused me, but when I smiled she looked relieved before grimacing again.

"It doesn't taste bad." I reassure her gently.

She snorts.

"It'll taste fishy."

"It won't, it's not a fishy tasting fish." She gave me an odd look but I wasn't in the mood to explain how some fishes are more oily and fishy in taste than others, "besides, I've season them with so many herbs you can barely even taste the fish."

"Herbs?"

"The plants I was picking on the way back." I say around a mouth full of fish.

"Oh. I don't really know very much about all that."

No, really? I wanted to say but I kept my mouth shut.

"I can show you a few things, if you like." I tell her and she eyes me with suspicion.

"Why?"

"Why, what?" I ask after I've swallowed another mouthful of fish. It wasn't bad, yeah the herbs are a little overpowering, but overall, it's pretty tasty.

"Why are you being so nice, freely telling us all this survival stuff, why not keep it all to yourself."

"Because you'll kill me."

"We could kill you either way, so why not bolt while we fumble around, probably killing ourselves due to eating the wrong berries." She gives me a look, "I know you changed the ones we picked."

I smile at her, feeling somewhat sheepish. Maybe Serendipity wasn't such a spoiled, arrogant, stuck-up, drop-dead beautiful, stupid brat after all. She was a spoiled, arrogant, stuck-up, drop-dead beautiful, observant, stupid brat.

"Hey, are you two eating all the food? Stop eating all the food! They're eating all the food." We both heard Jeopardy complaining before he was rushing over, demanding his share in the fish.

"I'll find us some stuff to make up a proper meal, like greens and roots." I promise as we all sit around the fire eating our share of the goods that I had caught. I receive several noncommittal grunts in return, though Serendipity did look up at me, a strange look in her beautiful blue eyes.

I simply smile back at her before digging into my second fish.

"Well, it's dusk. Better start out." Cole said as Serendipity, Merle and I came back to the camp that we had set up by Cornucopia, each of us carrying a bundle of wood each.

"Finally!" Jade exclaimed jumping to her feet from where she had been lounging by the fire for most of the afternoon, refusing to give us any help with anything. "Now to give the people what they've been dying to see all day!"

"Well, if you hadn't played with your kills this morning we could have gotten more killed during the bloodbath." Jeopardy grumbled.

"Oh, so your lack of performance today was my fault? What, can't make a kill without someone holding your hand?" Jade sneered back at him. Jeopardy's face went red.

"Look, we all performed badly this morning, but tonight will be different, right?" Merle says loudly.

"It wasn't our fault," I heard Jeopardy complain to Serendipity; "none of them were running for the Cornucopia, they all just bolted into the forest as soon as the gong sounded."

This was true, none of the kids had stuck around for long, none of them had even really tried to make to the Cornucopia… that is, not until we had all gone off to search for water, then they had snuck in and taken a few provisions, stuff that these lot wouldn't notice being gone.

I stared up at the darkening sky, wondering who it was who had snuck in and taken stuff. Ronan and Willow perhaps. They weren't amongst the dead that had been picked up shortly after the Bloodbath finished.

I shudder at the memory of seeing all those young, white, dead faces staring up at me. Even the boy who had tried to kill me made me wince. Why hadn't he just run, like everyone else? He had somehow managed to get his hands on axe, why not just keep going? Why stick around? To be involved with the carnage maybe? Yeah, and look where that had gotten him.

I wondered if his family and friends back home were cursing mine and Merle's names. Would they look at his death as his life having to be sacrificed so that I could continue living or did they simply think murder, murder.

I close my eyes.

I hardly blamed them for thinking that. I would be too, no matter what the circumstances were. If my child was killed during these games, no matter what she or he had done previously in the games, I would be screaming and cursing the tribute who killed them. I wouldn't care if they killed them through self defence or simply because they wanted to win, I'd still hate them with every fibre of my being.

As I'm thinking all this, I feel my stomach roll and I remember that I do have child in these games, a child I had to protect with my life, but why did it have to make it so hard?

Oh, baby not now.

"You ok? You look like you're about to be sick." Merle says as I sway slightly clutching my belly with one hand, while my other is pressed to my mouth.

Stop it. Please, they'll kill us if they think we're weak and no more use to them.

"I'm fine. Just… never mind. Who's going and who's staying?" I ask.

The groups as to who was going to stay in camp and who was going out hunting were fairly obvious to me even though it wasn't to the twins.

"What! WHY?" They both yelled when they heard they were staying behind, with me, to guard the camp while Jade, Cole and Merle went out hunting for tributes.

"Look, there are six of us. Three go hunting; three stay behind, simple maths." Merle says and sends me questioning look.

"I'm fine with this."

"Of course you are." Jade snorts, but I ignore her as I lean against the moss covered log that I had found nearby just within the forest edge and continue creating snares.

I was quite proud of my snares and I was actually looking forward to setting them out, testing them out tomorrow. I wasn't sure how many rabbits the others snares had caught, but you can always live in hope can't you?

With a few more grumbles the Twin finally gave up and sunk down onto the ground nearby, their arms crossed and they were pouting.

"See you probably around dawn." Merle says as he hands me a spear.

"Why?" I start to ask.

"Just take the damn spear. You never know."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Merle,"

"What?" He looked back at me in irritation as he halts in his march with the other two to look back me.

"Good luck and take care of yourself." I say and instead of sneering or making so snarky remark, he simply nods before legging it to catch up with the other two.

Please, don't kill him. Please.

If Merle dies, I can pretty much bet whatever allies I have with the other four is off, completely. I might be useful, but I'm not liked by them and they'll only keep useful around for so long and if Merle goes… well, I just have to pray that Cole and Jade don't want him dead yet.

"Can't believe they left us." Jeopardy complained. "First night in the Games and we're stuck on Guard Duty!"

"Hey, you never know who might show up. That big guy from eleven might." Though I hoped he didn't. For one thing, I like him and secondly, he'd could, if he put his mind to it, kill us quite easily. Or at least harm the three of us quite badly.

"Yeah, point taken. They might want to take some weapons or something."

Yeah, but someone or ones already have, I think but still I keep quite. Even with these two, I'm not risking it.

Night had fully fallen when we all hear the anthem that precedes the death recap ring out throughout the arena, along with the seal of the Capital appearing floating in the darkening sky.

I hold my breath as the anthem ends because I know what will happen next. The faces of all the dead tributes will appear on another screen in the night sky. The screen doesn't show how the dead tributes died, but rather it shows the same photographs that they showed when they televised our training scores. Simply a head shot with the dead tributes district number glowing beside their head.

The first to appear in the sky was the girl from District 3. She was so young! Maybe thirteen or fourteen years of age. I can't even remember her name. Or any of the other kids either.

The next face to appear is the girl from District 8. Both the tributes from both 9 and 10 are gone. And those are the six.

Only one of those six looked to be an adult and that was the boy from 9, the rest of them looked to be all younger than me by at least two years.

I stare down at my hands, while the twins mutter to themselves about the dead tributes. My hands curl into fists as I try to stay calm.

The other two ignore me when I get into one of heat reflecting sleeping bags. I had placed the bag in between the Cornucopia and the still burning fire where the twins are still sitting around.

I curled up within the bag, hugging myself close. I had a knife and a spear close at hand but not for the first time this night, I wished that I was by myself, in a secluded little spot by the lake.

I closed my eyes that are now starting to burn with unwanted tears.

Don't cry, don't start crying.

I press a hand to my belly where the baby slept and I feel a sense of calm flow through me or maybe it was just the desire to live.

I fell into a deep sleep only to be woken by a loud sound, like a controlled explosion. Or the sound of a cannon, a voice whispers in my head. Whatever it was the noise had me sitting bolt upright in fright, my heart pounding madly in my chest.

"They got someone." I heard Serendipity whisper somewhere nearby.

"About time." Jeopardy yawned and I realise with horror and disbelief that we'd all been sleeping, all of us! No one had been keeping watch! We could have been killed in our sleep and we'd be none the wiser. How could we honestly have been so stupid… again!

"What's with you?" I heard Jeopardy complain as I started stoking the warm coals and setting up a bright, cheery little fire.

"Someone has to keep watch." I say and the twins look up at me from their sleeping bags, frowning. "Unless you feel like being killed in your sleep." I add and the two immediately stop looking at me sceptically.

I throw my sleeping bag over my legs, so in case I can jump up and fight someone off… or something and settle myself back down against the log that I had leant upon yesterday.

With my feet being toasted by the fire, I wonder which tribute had just died.

Don't be Willow, I think and I chide myself. She has to die for you and the baby to live. They all have to die, just accept it.

I stay vigilant for the rest of the night, but I see and hear nothing for the rest of it, however I welcome the morning. When the sun rises I feel my very soul lift. There is something about morning that makes the world appear just that bit less scary, even here in the arena.

My sense of peace and security however is destroyed when I hear the cannon sound again.

I close my eyes and try to fight back nausea as I tick off yet another tribute from the twenty-four of us.

Eight down, sixteen of us left to go.

"Morning." Jeopardy yawned widely as he ran a hand through his messy blonde bed hair.

"Morning." I reply but I'm no longer glad that it is. While the other two rouse themselves for the day, I go over in my mind what I want to do today. First thing I wanted to do is go and check my snares. We need food, as everything that I caught yesterday was eaten last night, and I doubt that the other three did any kind of food gathering, their minds too firmly focused on hunting down tributes and killing them.

A part of me wanted to just go off and collect food on my own, to just be on my own and away from the others, but I knew that wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do. Even though I'm a part of the Career group, and hopefully that means I'll get to live a little longer because of it, I know that I've set myself against every other tribute in the arena by 'siding' with these lot. So going off on my own would mean any tribute who felt that they could take on one lone Career, would. And if it was anyone like the huge boy from District Eleven, I would not stand a chance.

"I want to go and check my snares." I say to the other two who have joined me by the fire.

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Serendipity asked.

I shake my head.

"If we wait, we risk the chance of someone or an animal stealing our rabbits." I say patiently and the other two groan.

We are just getting ourselves ready to head out to go and check our snares when the other three arrive back at camp looking pleased with themselves. I was glad then that I had a empty stomach otherwise I would have thrown up.

"Where's breakfast?" Jade barked as a way of greeting.

"We were just going out to check whether or not any has been caught. And since you're back, we don't have to worry about the camp." I say brightly while Jade scowls at me as if I had done this to deliberately annoy her or something.

With weapons in hand and backpacks on our backs, the three of us headed off, leaving the others to mind the camp.

I walked ahead of the other two, hoping this wasn't yet another stupid move and that I wouldn't end up with a spear sticking out of my back.

"I don't trust her, Jep." I heard Serendipity hiss from behind.

"Why?"

"She terrifies me for one thing." I heard Serendipity softly admit and figured that she wasn't talking about me, since I was far from being terrifying to anyone. "I don't think she really cares about our alliance, I think she'll kill us the first chance she gets."

"So why not just leave then?" I call back to them, causing the two of them to glare back at me, "no one is making you stay. And if you're so afraid of Jade breaking off the alliance so soon in the games, then leaving now might be the best things."

"And give her more reason to take us out faster." Jeopardy grumbled and I shrugged.

"Why aren't you running?" Serendipity called after me.

I pause thinking for a moment before smiling sheepishly back at her.

"Because my mentors would have a fit if I did."

Serendipity frowned back at me.

"Why? You would survive ok on your own. I mean, your weapon skills suck, but you have survival skills that we don't have." Serendipity says with such sincerity I almost trip over.

I look back at her strangely and watch as her pretty face turns red.

"Well it's true!" She snapped glaring at both her brother and me while we simply look at her with startled expressions.

"Um, right." I say slowly and keep walking.

I find that our snares have been successful, and that we've been rewarded with three fine, plump rabbits.

I look down at them, trying not to feel too sorry for them as I pull them free of the snares, reassembling it again. As I do this, I try and remember everything that I know about rabbits and how I should prepare them for eating.

"I'm not eating that." Serendipity informed me and I roll my eyes.

"You said that about the fish." Jeopardy says, beating me to it.

"But…"

"Its food Sera," Jeopardy says as he takes two of the rabbits off me and ties them to his backpack.

"But…"

"What next?" Jeopardy asked me ignoring his sister.

"I guess we can try the lake and see if we can catch some fish." I say. The twins nod and together we walk in the direction of the lake and its huge waterfall.

I'm not sure why the twins are going along with my plans as quietly as they are; maybe they plan to murder me while my back is turned. I don't know. But even so, even if they are planning to kill me, they're not all that bad company, once their get over or forget to act all higher than thee, they're actually quite nice.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Author's Note:** So today is Father's Day here in the Land of Oz - _** HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!**_ To my Dad and Step-Dad both who know of this fanfic but will probably never ever read it... mainly because I won't let them. - and I thought that today being Father's Day was as good an excuse as any to post up a chapter - I'll probably be posting Chapter Seventeen on my birthday, which is the 5th of Sept. Though I gotta say this is a pretty depressing chapter to be posting up on Father's Day, but you'll just have to read the chapter to find out. Chapter Seventeen is a little happier, but basically from now on in things are going to get dark, like really, really dark. I've actually made myself cry when writing the latest couple of chapters, which is terrible, but that's how it is... I get way too attached to my characters, even the ones that I don't spend all that much time writing about.  
But anyway, I'll shut up and allow you all to read Chapter Sixteen.

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen**

When we returned to the camp site around midday, the other three were sound asleep, sprawled out around the dying fire.

I didn't bother thinking how stupid they had been, to fall asleep without at least one of them staying awake to keep guard, if only because it would be equally as stupid for someone to try and take them on, even asleep. It would be simply suicidal to try.

Instead I hold my tongue and went about cooking our lunch and preparing the rest of the food so that it will remain editable for a reasonable amount of time.

While I'm doing this, cooking and preparing food, it's hard for me to remember that I'm actually a tribute in the Hunger Games. The Arena is such a pretty and peaceful place that it's hard to be afraid. It probably also helps that at the moment I am allied with the Careers and that it might be awhile before they tire of me and decide its time for me to die.

Cole is the first of the three to wake up and come over to join the three of us. He's not a very talkative person, but unlike Jade, he doesn't scare me to death, even though he's huge and could kill me with one hand.

He seems to be appreciative of the food preparation I'm doing, muttering that he had gotten hungry last night while out 'hunting'.

It took a moment for my brain to click onto what he meant by 'hunting' and I almost made a fool of myself by asking him what it was he had be trying to hunt. I managed to shut my mouth just in time, but he obviously saw something in my face that made him look down at me strangely before taking his second helping of rabbit that I was handing to him.

Merle and Jade woke up soon after and thankfully I and the rest of us had the brains to leave plenty of food because when Jade came over to the fire, she looked fairly murderous.

"What took you so long?" she snapped as I quickly started giving her food, which seemed to be the smartest thing I could do.

"Hunting takes awhile and we were fishing at the wrong time of day." I explained calmly or as calmly as I could, the girl really did look ready to rip someone's head off.

She didn't say anything in reply, simply dug into the large portion of food that I had given her. I saw that I had done the right thing by giving her so much food, when I saw Cole nod his head at me and sent me the smallest of smiles.

After lunch and I had finished dividing up the food between the six of us – once again I gave Jade more than the rest of us, but as no one pointed this out or argued with me, I figured that they knew I was trying to keep her happy and off all of our backs – it was decided that we'd leave the Cornucopia and start hunting out the forest. All of us.

Serendipity and Jeopardy were thrilled while I felt a little wary, but I didn't argue and packed as many of the weapons from Cornucopia into and onto my backpack as I could carry before following the others into the forest.

Everyone else was doing the same, though when I looked between us, I felt extremely ill-equipped compared to them, but I reassured myself that I was better equipped than them when it came to practicality. Their backpacks were stuffed with weapons, the only practical stuff they had were their water bottles, sleeping bags and the food that I had prepared for them. Me, on the other hand, had stuffed my pack with as much first-aid stuff as I could, along with rope, my sleeping bag, lots of boxes of matches, obviously my water bottles and food and various other things that the rest of them saw as useless while I saw potential for everything that I shoved into my backpack.

When we first entered the forest, it's a bright and cheerful place, I can hear birds singing and I can see rabbits bounding away from us as we trudge loudly though the undergrowth.

In hindsight, this would have been a perfect time for me to simply disappear. I was at the back of the group, no one was paying me any heed, so if I had simply slowed down and fallen even further behind I could have made my way to the lake and spent the rest of my time during these Games hiding out there.

But I didn't, I kept up with them, even though I am smaller than the rest of them and am less used to carry weapons on my back and around my waist and together we delved deeper in the forest than I had ever been before.

After awhile Serendipity falls back to walk with me. We don't talk but I'm actually glad for the company as we move deeper into the darkening, quieting trees.

I kept my ears pricked for any sounds, like rustling of leaves in the trees and on the forest floor. I know the other five are listening too, but I also know we're not listening for the same things. I'm listening for rabbits, they're listening for tributes. I know which one I'd rather find.

My eyes are searching too, but it's so dark now in the forest, it's almost like walking in midevening, you can still see around you, but nothing is particularly clear. This makes me nervous, as any one of the other tributes could use this dimness to their advantage and set up traps for us to blindly walk into.

A part of me wants to mention it to the others, but I don't wish to break the silence that surrounds us.

The silence, like the dimness, is unnerving. Now there isn't even a bird's call or even the faintest rustle of an animal moving around the forest floor, there's just… silence.

I start to wish that we had just stayed where we were, or maybe we could have gone to the lake and waited for tributes there, as so far the lake seems to be the only source of water that I've seen so far. A trickling stream would be a nice break from this awful silence that is so loud that it's deafening.

Were we walking around in circles? I couldn't tell and that scared me more than anything, but before I could work myself up into having a panic attack we are suddenly walking upwards, up a sudden slope in the forest.

After what feels like hours, we break free of the tree and I can now see that we are actually half way up one of the mountains that surrounds the whole arena.

It's quite dark when we're free of the trees and if it weren't for the fresh air and the stars, I would have still thought we were in that horrid forest. I had started to feel suffocated and my mind had started to play tricks on me, like making me think I had heard or seen something when in truth I hadn't at all.

"That was awful." Serendipity muttered beside me. She looked quite pale in the dim light. I nod stiffly, easing my heavy pack of my back which is aching something terrible now. "It was just too… quiet." I nod again, not wanting to think of deathly silence of the forest non to far from where we are setting up camp.

I wish we could have moved even further up the mountain, but the others have no wish to walk any further and are complain for food and I'm too tired to put up a fight with them.

I start to make a fire and feel immediately cheered by its bright and warm glow and start cooking some of the provisions I had made earlier today, but I was worried as to how long they would last. I hadn't seen any rabbits during our hike up here and the Lake, as huge as it is, is quite a distance away from where we now are.

Why had we come up here at all? No tribute would have gone through the effort of walking through the forest to get up here; it was only through sheer stubbornness that we had.

I had just finished cooking our dinner when I'm proven completely wrong; we were not the only ones who are stubborn enough to keep trekking through that horrible forest to get up here.

I hear a rustling somewhere near to where we are, a rustling that is far too loud for that of a rabbit. I squeeze my eyes shut when I hear the others gather up their weapons as they wait, wait for the rustling to grow nearer and nearer to where we are.

There's more than one coming, I thought with a groan before feeling a little apprehensive.

If the other tributes have gathered in numbers and those numbers are fairly large, they might actually be able to take us down in a fight.

It wasn't a huge group of tributes however, there was only three of them, who, upon immediately seeing us and realising who we were, yelled and screamed in terror and made to bolt for it, back into the forest…

Only one was so lucky.

The boy was dead the moment Cole's spear entered his body and he fell into a heap onto the ground, the girl screaming out his name in horror as a cannon sounded

"WARWICK!"

She fought a brave fight against Jade. She had somehow managed to get her hands on a broadsword which she was using fairly well despite the obvious fact that this was clearly the first time she had ever used the blade in an attempt to save her life and that she was going up against Jade.

If she was up against any of us, with exception of Cole and Merle, she might have stood a fighting chance, but she was up against Jade who was simply playing with her before going in for the kill.

She was cut up badly before she finally went down, gasping and sobbing as she fell to her knees, the broadsword dropping uselessly to her side.

I looked at Jade and saw in horror that she was smiling.

"What's your name?" she asked cordially as if we were all meeting at school or down at the beach instead of in this horrible place.

"Come on, I asked you a question." Jade said as she roughly grabbed the girls chin and forced her to look up at her.

I had to admire the girl's spirit, for instead of caving into Jade's request for her name, she simply glared up at her.

"You're being very rude, you know." Jade chide her as she pulled a knife from her belt and twirled it in her free hand. "And rudeness needs to be punished." The knife was now placed next to the girl's eye and I heard her ragged sob as the sharp metal started to dig into her eye socket.

"STOP IT!"

It took a moment for me to realise that I had shouted out, that everyone was staring at me with mixed expressions, varying from horror to rolling their eyes in frustration at me.

"What did you say?" Jade snarled at me.

Run, just run. You're fast, you can make it. It'll take time for them to get their act together to give chase after you. Run!

"I said stop it." I said fighting back panic and my desire to run, "she's dying, let her die in peace."

Jade snort and turned back to the girl and started digging into her eye once more with her knife.

_Please…_

The knife that I had strapped to my belt was out of my hand and embedded deeply into the girl's chest without even a thought of what I was planning to do with the knife passing through my head.

The girl fell dead to Jade's feet and a second cannon went off.

"Wow Annie, I didn't think you had it in you." Jade said coyly as she turned to face me, the firelight dancing upon her amused features.

"Nice throw." She added as she wrenched my knife free of the girl's chest. I felt a little nauseated when she did that and the way she smiled as she kicked the girl's body as she came to stand back with us.

She handed back my knife which I vigorously cleaned on the ground before backing away so that the hovercrafts can pick up the bodies.

_Please…_

It had been please that she had mouthed to me, hadn't it? Please end her suffering… or had she been asking for me to please help her.

It had defiantly been please… right?

I said little to nothing for the rest of the evening. I couldn't eat and I didn't want to sleep, so I took first watch, simply staring out into the forest, paying no heed to the Capital's anthem nor to the death recap.

I just kept staring into the forest, not really seeing or hearing anything, my mind was blank.

I rubbed my belly for comfort, almost feeling the life of my child growing within me, knowing that I would die if anything happen to it.

_Please…_

I squeeze my eyes shut and try to take deep breathes.

_Please…_

Please… what? What did you want me to do? What?

_Please…_

I couldn't have helped you; they would have killed me before I even had chance. And I can't… I can't die. I'm sorry, I'm sorry…

_Please…_

I'm sorry, I'm sorry…

_Please…_

_Please…_

_Please…_

GO AWAY!

I jerk awake and sit bolt upright as a loud roaring noise echoes around the arena. I'm sure the noise is coming from the lake and I swear I can hear distant splashing.

Another loud roar echoes around the mountains before silence once more reigns through the darkness.

"What was that?" Serendipity whispered.

"One of the Capital's mutts'." Cole muttered.

"I've never heard one sound so… loud before." Jeopardy mumbled and we all agreed with him. Well, all of us except for Jade who had rolled over and had gone back to sleep the moment she knew that it wasn't a tribute who had woken us all up.

"Merle," I say as I move over to where he is sitting by the fire and keeping guard, "I'll take over."

From the dim light of the fire I see Merle eyeing me with a frown.

"You already have tonight, it's Jeopardy's turn."

"I don't mind." I say quickly. "Please?" despite myself I find myself wincing as I say the word.

"Fine," he huffs, "Suit yourself. Night."

"Night." I whisper back as I watch him roll himself into his sleeping bag. I hug mine close around my body and once more stare out into the night.

After killing just one person, I'm already a mess, I think bitterly. You're such a weakly, be stronger or you and the baby are going to die.

But still, a lone tear rolls down my cheek.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I hate Jade. I'm just putting that out there. I really, really hate her and lol, she's my own character! I just really hate. I never feel good when I'm writing her which is probably a good thing, but the more I write her the more I hate her and am actually a little scared of her myself and again, she's my own character. And you think she's ws bad and evil in this chapter, just wait... she's going to get a whole lot worse.  
Anyway, Poor Annie, things are starting to get to her already. And will continue to do so. But I'm not going to make her insane, I've got other ideas of what I'm going to have happen to her, but insanity isn't one of them. I don't know how to write insanity anyway.  
So I hope you enjoyed this chapter... Wait do I? ... You know what I mean. Reviews are much loved and appreciated. Chapter Seventeen will most likely be posted on my birthday, Sept 5th. If not then, then on the sixth.  
See you then.  
Bye for now.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Author's Note: **So it's my birthday today and as promised here is Chapter Seventeen. This chapter is sort of building things up chapter, not too much happens in it, but its building up certain thing that will happen later on. But it is a relatively short chapter so I might post Chapter Eighteen today or tomorrow.

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

"Why did we even come up here?" Jeopardy was complaining as we started off the next morning, trudging along the forest edge.

"No reason." Came Jade's reply and I watched tiredly as Jeopardy seethed.

"No reason? We travelled through that creepy forest for no reason?!"

"Yes."

"Jep!" Serendipity and I both said, trying to calm the blonde boy down before he did something stupid. We could all see that was exactly what Jade wanted.

"So where are we going now?" Serendipity ventured once she was sure that her twin wasn't going to do something that he'd quickly regret.

"Back to the lake." Merle said, glancing at Cole and Jade who both shrugged. He glanced at me who looked back at him tiredly, "we need more water and food." I nodded and went back to staring at my feet.

I hadn't slept well last night, probably only got maybe three hours of sleep all up and I was exhausted. My own fault, but my mind wouldn't allow me to rest; it just replayed the horror of last night over and over again inside my head.

"But that was where that weird roaring noise came from last night." Serendipity reminded us. We paused for a moment before pressing on.

"What do you think it was?" Sera asked me.

I shrugged, how was I to know?

"Not a mutt," I could hear her whispering to herself, "Don't let it be a mutt. Hate mutts!"

I was so glad when we arrived at the lake's edge just after midday. Even though I was nervous as Sera about the roaring from last night, seeing water again made me feel more like me again.

I cup my hands into the water and take a sip. It's still as sweet as it was the other day.

I look around me, towards the middle of the lake and frowned.

What was…

I stood up and stared harder at the lake.

"What?" I heard Merle say from near me.

I glance at him and he looked back at me questioningly.

"I just - I thought…"I trailed off when I looked back towards the middle of the lake and saw that the shadow that I had seen near the surface of the water was gone.

A cloud passing overhead, maybe?

No, there was something in the water, something very big to cast such a shadow.

"Never mind." I say and we start walking along the beach towards an outcrop of rocks that go out into the lake, a good spot for fishing.

I was surprised that the others actually let me spend time to make several fishing rods to fish with, but I guess their hunger overruled their desire to hunt down tributes.

Of course it wouldn't be until dusk before we actually got any food, since fish aren't overly active in the day time, so after I made my rods, Merle and I set up more traps in the forest to catch rabbits with.

While we did this I saw the first signs of other tributes. I mean besides the three I saw last night, but I wasn't thinking about them. I refused to.

I crouched down by an already set up trap near the lake and gulped before shaking my head and moving away from it. Merle was a little distance from me but as he hadn't noticed the trap and I wasn't about to bring it up we continued on setting up our traps before heading back to the lake. It was dusk by the time we got back and I went and sat on one of the rocks that went deep out into the lake.

I set my lines up, baiting them and casting each just how my father had taught me so many years ago, before turning my attention to watching the Merle, Cole and oddly enough Jeopardy spear fishing in the shallows. So far, Merle was the only one who had caught anything and it was too tiny to eat.

I enjoyed simply sitting there, my bare feet dipped in the water, watching the sunset dance upon the lake's surface, feeling the breeze in my hair. I almost felt like I was back home. Almost… the lack of salty smell and the cry of seabirds were a constant reminder that I was far, far away from home.

I was almost drifting off to sleep when I noticed that one of my lines was straining. I moved forward, ready to wind in my catch when the rod was suddenly ripped from my hands. I took a step back as I watched in disbelief as each one of my carefully crafted fishing rods were violently pulled into the lake.

What?

Then I noticed the shadow, closer this time and moving steadily towards the shore where the boys were still spear fishing.

What was it? A Mutt?

I had never seen an underwater mutt before, at least not one that looks as big as this one did!

"Look out!" the scream erupted from my throat before I had time to think better of it.

Merle looked my way in confusion but when he saw the huge shadow in the water, moving towards him and the other two he was bolting for the shore, Jeopardy hot on his heels. Only Cole stayed in the water, raising his spear, his face filled with determination to face whatever was coming.

"Run Stupid!" I yelled at him.

He ignored me and threw his spear with the strength that I could only dream to have.

I staggered back on my rock at the unearthly screech that came after Cole's spear embedding itself into the shadow.

"COLE!" I yell as I watched a huge, grey and blue tentacle suddenly shoot out of the water and grab him around the waist and start to yank him away from the shore.

I can hear the others yelling in shock and fear, but Cole remains strangely calm and continues to fight against the huge tentacle, stabbing it with his knife. But the tentacle was stronger than him, its width the size of his torso almost and it clearly did not like being stabbed.

With a loud yell he was dragged into the lake.

I stared in horror as I watched him being pulled pass where I was standing and without a thought of just how stupid I was about to be, how I really should just let the boy die so that I can have a greater chance of surviving these games. These thoughts didn't enter my mind until afterwards, right now I was filling my lungs with air and running for the edge of the huge rock I was standing on, performing a perfect dive into the lake's water.

It was natural to be in the water again, natural to swim. Swimming was the only thing I'm good at, only thing I'm truly proud about myself.

I swam after the shadow and after Cole, who I can see is still fighting against the tentacle that is holding him, but I can see he's already lost most of his strength and that he's running out of air.

I waved at him to stop, to stay calm as I pulled my long knife that I had strapped to my back… it was meant for beheading the big fish I had been hoping to catch but now seemed like a better use for it.

I won't go into just how hard it is to try and cut a huge, living, slimy thing in water, but I was at least annoying it enough to make it shove us to the surface and loosen its grip on Cole so that I could pull him free.

"Can you swim?" I ask as he spewed up water and gasped for air.

"COLE!" I say loudly because he's blue in the face and I think he's close to falling unconscious, "can-you-SWIM?"

A very weak shake of his head.

Oh, wonderful.

And… oh.

I felt something slimy and strong wrap itself around my ankle. Trying to stay calm, I don't move, all the while trying to keep myself and Cole afloat. Not an easy task when the guy is twice my size. The slippery thing gets bored of my ankle and after a moment of continuing to remain motionless I start to swim cautiously, my strokes getting stronger and faster the closer I get to shore, dragging the half conscious Cole along with me.

When my feet are able to touch the bottom of the lake, I look behind me, to make sure I wasn't being followed by the mutt and I felt my heart stop.

Kraken.

It's a Kraken! They've made a Kraken!

A thing of myth and legend and the Capital has made one, just for these games.

"ANNIE! COME ON!"

It's only when I get to shore and have made sure that Cole is breathing alright and isn't about to die on me, which would be a quite a blow after the effect I put into saving him - as stupid as that was – did I look back towards the lake, towards the sea monster that I had feared as a child. A creature who wasn't even meant to be real and yet, there it was, swimming right in front me, its huge, ugly head bobbing up and down in the water, its tentacles moving about it.

It actually looked quite… peaceful. Maybe it was simply territorial and once we were out of its watery territory it now had no interest in us.

"That's a Kraken." I hear Merle say sounding as breathless as I felt, though our reasons behind our breathlessness are quite different. But still, I can't help but grin at him nor can he help grinning back.

Yes, this creature had terrified us children of District Four for generations, if we're not good the Kraken will come and get us, but actually seeing one, real and swimming before us, was simply… amazing is the only word I can thing to describe it.

The others however, didn't quite feel the same.

They wanted nothing more to do with lake, even though it was our only source of water that we knew of and they wanted to head back into the horrid forest, rather facing it and its silence than the creature in the lake.

"We don't even know if it eats meat. It may have been just curious about Cole." I grumbled as we start packing up our things. I don't really wanting to move as its getting dark and cold and I was still in wet clothes and basically I'm just happy where we are.

Yes, even with an enormous squid nearby, I was happy to stay where I was. But majority overruled me and we moved back into confines of the forest and built a camp within a small clearing that we found after half an hour of walking.

I was glad that the boys had caught as many fish as they had; I was too tired to go and check our snares or to go and hunt for any roots or fruits. I still had to cook the fish.

I ended up burning a few of them, but no one complained and ate all that I gave them, even though the fish was actually quite plain as I hadn't seasoned them with much of anything.

I even got thanked by Merle and the Twins. Cole was still fairly out of it but he took the food from me and even smiled. Jade didn't say anything but that was probably for the best.

I fell into an uneasy, heavy sleep, too tired to even think about the nightmares that were bound to visit me throughout the night.

* * *

Once again I woke up to find everyone asleep, that no one was standing guard and that the fire had become a low and dying embers.

I heard a faint crack nearby, too heavy for a rabbit or any forest dweller that I could think of and I doubted that the Kraken's tentacle could reach this far.

I sat up my heart pounding madly in my chest as I built up the fire once more before springing to my feet, my knife in hand.

But no one came, no one moved into the light of the fire, though I knew they were there. I could just feel it and at times I swear I could hear ragged breathing that weren't from the sleeping five around me.

I don't know how long I stood there waiting for someone to appear and attack me, but it was a long time as my legs ached when I finally sat back down by the fire. My back was to it and I stared out into the forest, into the darkness, feeling a sense of heaviness around me.

"I don't want to hurt you." I say out loud without even thinking, "I don't want to hurt anyone."

Still no one appears and I settle down a little, that is until I hear a distant cannon goes off and I hear the faint sound of running footsteps, running away from our camp.

"What was that?" Serendipity yelped out in fright. The others echo her bewilderment.

"Cannon." I say.

"But who?"

I shrugged.

"Maybe one of the kids who were hurt during the bloodbath…" I trail off shuddering. Dying from a deep, infected wound was not the way I would want to go, if that was how this tribute had in fact died.

I shuddered again. It took him or her three days to finally die.

Or, he or she could have been killed by another tribute or by a wild animal or mutt… I closed my eyes and shove the thoughts away.

I stay on watch for a little longer before Merle takes over for me and I fell once again into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

**Author's Note:** So I have a Kraken in my games. Did the Gamemakers throw it in to simply make things more interesting in the games or has it got something to do with Annie?  
Just another heads up, just to let you all know before you actually read it, things from now on are going to get really, really dark after this chapter, starting with the next, like really dark. And will probably continue to do so for the rest of Part Two... things might change for a time in Part Three but I'm not going to tell you how because that just ruining the story.  
Anyway, Hope you all enjoyed. Reviews are loved and its my birthday and yeah. Chapter Eighteen might possible be up soon, demanding.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Author's Note:** Ok, so you twisted my arm. Here's Chapter Eighteen but don't say I didn't warn you when I said things get dark and depressing from this chapter on. This chapter made me cry... so does the next chapter and next.  
Anyway, Please enjoy.  
Oh and Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes, they're really making my day, so thank you, thank you very much.

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen**

I woke a dawn, but I didn't get up.

I simply lay in my sleeping bag, staring up at the treetops, at the leaves that were being painted gold by the dawn light, birds flittering about the treetops, singing for the new day.

Even though I think how pretty the image above me is, I can't help but feel that today is going to be a bad day. And when I feel that a day is going to be bad, it usually is.

I looked over to where the others are sleeping, noting the Serendipity is the one on watch, but she like me, was staring up at the glittering, gold scene above her rather that keeping watch for trouble.

I sit up slowly and look around me at the others. We're all starting to look worse for wear now. We're reasonable clean still, what with having a brief splash around in the lake yesterday afternoon before we were attacked by the Kraken, but our clothes were stained with mud and in some cases, blood, and tears were starting to appear.

I ran a hand through my hair, which had long since fallen out of the strict and formal braid that Eyria had plaited it into so long ago. Long ago? No, it was only something like four days ago.

I shake my head in disbelief.

It felt more like a life time ago, or even another life almost. I didn't feel like me anymore. I didn't feel like the Annie I was only a few days prier.

I look down at my hands with my broken nails and cracked skin. They don't look all that different from how they usually look back home, only that they are. They're the hands of a killer now.

I squeeze my eyes shut and tell myself to stop it, to stop thinking about... about _that_! I have to stay strong, for the baby if for nothing else.

I force myself to get up, to start moving or else I don't think I will be able to face the day.

"Morning." Serendipity greeted me quietly as I came to sit by her by the fire.

"Morning." I said and tried to smile at her. Out of all of us, Serendipity is probably looking the most run down. Her once bright eyes were now dull and almost lifeless, as was her hair which hung in a limp rope over her shoulder.

She smiled weakly back at me before staring blankly back out into the trees. I wondered what she was thinking about before deciding that I probably didn't want to know as it would only get me thinking about things that I really didn't want to think about.

The others woke up shortly after us, Jade being the last and in the best of moods. When Jeopardy ventured to ask why she was so happy this morning, she smiled her somewhat insane smile at him and said that she had dreamt that she had won the games. She didn't elaborate further but the dreamy look she got while eating breakfast made the rest of us want to sit as far away from her as possible. Even Cole.

I don't know who decided that we were going to make a move, probably Cole or Merle but after breakfast we were packing up and heading off in really no particular direction. We just started walking and seeing if any tributes or food came into our path.

Sera stayed pretty close to me and Jeopardy fairly close to the both us and both watch closely as I gathered up roots and berries, occasionally asking what each were and if they were editable or if they could be used as some kind of remedy for an ailment.

The more questions they asked me the more I started to wonder if they were going to sneak away from the group and try and survive on their own.

I don't blame them as this was exactly what I want to do; it's just finding the right moment to sneak away that is the problem. Jade seems to be keeping an extra close eye on us, glancing over her shoulder back at us as we walk and coming to stand with us as we stop and pick fruits, roots and herbs. I can tell that this sudden interest in us from Jade is terrifying Sera, who is barely keeping a grip on her screams by midday what with Jade continuous popping up beside or behind Sera.

I hear a frighten little squeal as I'm kneeling down and digging up some roots.

My hand immediately goes for my knife, even when I hear Jade laughing and saying that she was kidding and that everyone needed to lighten up.

"Will you knock it off?!" Cole growls at Jade, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him, "your scaring all the game away." I wasn't sure if he meant food or tributes. For some reason I had a feeling he actually meant food.

"Actually," Jade replies, "it's her," she jerked her thumb in Sera's direction, "who is scaring all the 'game' away."

"I don't care." Cole says running a hand through his messy hair, "just knock it off. This place is bad enough without…" he doesn't finish his sentence but I can see a sort of hopelessness to him that I hadn't seen before.

Jade snorts at him in disgust before striding off ahead.

"You okay?" I ask Sera as I get up and go and stand by her.

She lets out a tiny sob before shaking her head and shot me a very weak glare.

"Of course I'm fine!" She snaps at me shrilly, "what do you take me for? A weakling?"

Before I have time to answer – I wasn't even sure what I was going to actually say in return really – when we all heard Jade's triumphant yell and yelp of pain.

We ran without thinking to where we thought Jade and her poor victim were. When we got to them I felt my heart sink.

Ronan.

No, not Ronan. Anyone but him!

I look quickly around for Willow, but I don't see her.

_Oh let her be safe_.

"Look what I caught." Jade said sounding smug as she twisted her spear that was sticking out of Ronan's upper leg. The boy was sweating and I watch as he presses his mouth into a firm line to keep himself from screaming.

_Leave him alone. Please just leave him alone!_

"Now what am I going to do with you?" Jade was asking in a singsong voice, still twisting her spear around in his leg.

I watched a tear roll down his cheek but he didn't say a word and the glare that he was giving Jade with his steel grey eyes made my heart freeze. Though not Jade's apparently.

"I asked you a question, and it's rude not to answer questions." Jade said as she gave the spear a yank, sliding it a few inches out of his leg before shoving it back in. Ronan couldn't stop the cry of pain when she did this.

_Leave him alone!_

Somewhere nearby I thought I heard a ragged little sob. Looking around slowly, I saw the source and felt my heart stop again.

Steel grey eyes met my sea green.

Run, I mouthed at her, run away.

She looked at me desperately, looking between Ronan and me. I shook my head and fought back my own tears as more tears rolled down her face.

Ronan's cry made me look back to him and I felt like being sick. He's down, he can't escape, so why? Why are you torturing him, just kill him quickly.

"Maybe since you've been so rude to me," Jade was saying as twisted her spear in one hand and knife that she was carving patterns into his cheek with the other, "maybe I should just..."

I start to shake as she draws back her knife and stabs him right in the chest, but missing his heart completely.

Ronan didn't cry out when she did this, but he's eyes were wide and watering and his breathing heavy and laboured but still he doesn't make a sound. But when he looked at me, recognised me, I saw that he was sending me the same look; at least I think he was, as the girl from the other night.

Jade kicked him in frustration and raised her knife again, but…

I don't know how I got from being near the back of our group to her side so fast, I don't remember running, but somehow I was there and I had seized the wrist that held the knife before she could shove it cruelly into his stomach.

"Enough." I said and she stared at me with utile loathing. "He's dying. Just finish it. These games are terrible and horrible enough without a sadist like you in them!"

Jade stared at me, her mouth hanging open a little, but rather I think because of what I said about the games then about what I said about her being a sadist.

I felt a little nervous myself, but it's true! These games are terrible and horrible without people like her in them!

"Hey!"

I had never thought that he'd actually have the strength to try and crawl away from us, but Ronan clearly had more strength in his scrawny body than you'd ever imagine. But only so much strength, not enough to survive one of Cole's spears, but really who would want to?

A cannon sounded around us.

"You took my kill!" Jade was screaming at Cole, for now completely forgetting about me, which allowed me to walk over to Ronan's body and gently, gently as I possibly could, pull the spears from his body before carefully laying him on his back.

I fought back tears as I took in all the torture that Jade had put him through. All the torture that I had just stood by and let her do.

I could have stopped her earlier, I could have done something and maybe he would have actually gotten away, maybe…

"I'm sorry." I whispered to him, only him because I didn't want the others to hear, "I'm so sorry."

I gently folded his arms across his chest, hiding the worst of Jade's cruelty. His grey eyes stared sightlessly up at me and I felt a sob building in my throat, but I forced it back and closed his eyes.

Behind me I think I can hear Sera sobbing quietly, Jep trying to calm her down before the other three noticed.

I can hear the Hovercraft coming for Ronan's body and I know I need to step away, to get away from him so that they can take him, but I don't want to. I don't want to move, I don't want to leave his side even though his dead.

Dead. Never to speak or heard again, never to be seen walking, running, laughing, being with his best friend and his best friend's little sister.

Willow?

I looked to where I had last seen her and saw that she was still there, still crying. Seeing her makes the tears that I've been trying to hold back fall.

"I'm sorry," I mouth at her, "I'm so sorry."

She nods and I feel my heart break some more.

"Run," I mouth at her, "you have to run."

She nods again before making a motion with her hands, a come motion.

She wants me to come with her? After I did nothing to save her district partner? How can she want me anywhere near her?

Her motioning becomes more frantic, but I shake my head, mouthing for her to run again.

After hesitating for another moment she does as I ask and I watch her silently disappear into the trees. It's when I can't see her anymore that I step away from Ronan's body.

"You stole my kill!" Jade was still screaming as we moved away from Ronan so that the Hovercraft can pick him up.

"And you! How dare you!" it took me a moment to realise she was talking to me, shoving her still bloody knife in my face. I just look back at her, not really feeling… anything. For the moment I was numb. I don't even think I would feel her knife when she shoves it into my stomach.

"Easy Jade." I hear Merle say unexpectedly, "we still need her."

Jade swings around to face him and for an awful moment I think she is going to attack him. So does everyone else apparently because we start fanning out and away from the two of them.

But nothing happens and Jade simply sniffs at us before heading of ahead once more.

"Annie, no offense, but next time Jade wants to play with her kill, how bout just letting her do so." Merle says, running a hand through his hair and sounding nervous.

I nod and say ok, though I doubt that will happen, so does everyone else who simple shake their heads at me but they all walk with me, not with Jade who keeps screaming back at us to hurry up, but with me.

I honestly thought the horror of Ronan would the worse that this day could offer. If only I knew that it was only just the beginning.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Told you it was darker than previous chapters and will continue to do so.  
I really didn't want to kill Ronan, even though this was how I was planning for him to die right when I started writing Part One, when I actually got to this chapter, I really didn't want to write it. I barely wrote anything for him, no more than that tiny, tiny little scene between him and Annie during I think the first day of training, but I really, really like him. Ok, now I'm making myself sad, which is bad because its my B'day and you're not suppose to be sad on your B'day.  
Ok, so before I go, I have a question for you all. What gifts do you think Annie should receive from sponsors because I was trying to write a scene where she gets a gift from a sponsor and I've only come up with one idea, which I'm keeping because its important but I'd like some other ideas too. So if you have any, please let me know and I'll try and throw them in. Any ideas, I love to hear them.  
Anyway, I'm off to do some birthday-y things, so I will say bye for now.  
Thanks for reading and reviews are loved!


	19. Chapter Nineteen

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the wait on this chapter. I've been really busy with my course as we are coming to the end of term and I haven't had much time to write. However, I'm heading over to America next week and while I doubt I'll be able to do any writing there, I still want to post a chapter or two before I go.

The beginning of this chapter is sort of depressing, disgusting and I wouldn't have the faint hearted reading it aka me. However I can't stop you from doing so but please don't give me a hard time over how horrible and digusting this chapter is. It was hard enough to write and I can't change my storyline now, however I have tried to lower the gore-factor, but still, it's kind of gross and to me at least, a little disturbing.

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen**

I honestly thought that the day couldn't get any worse, but this is the Hunger Games after all, and making things worse is their specialty.

While Jade roared ahead of us, the rest of us walked in silence. It's hard to believe how loud these five were just four days ago. Now it's like someone's switched the light and fire off from within them, only Jade has the same amount of energy and vigour as she had when she entered the games.

"Hey, you lot!" We all jumped at the sound Jade yelling back at us, "come and take a look at this."

Glancing at each other the five of us headed for the second time today in the direction of Jade's yells, each of us dreading what we'd find when we reached her.

And we weren't wrong to dread.

The moment I joined Jade I felt like I was going to be sick for the second time today.

"Jade…"

"Hey, I didn't do this." Jade snorted as she and the rest of us looked around the small clearing that we found ourselves in.

Charred bones littered the ground by a dying fire and they weren't just any old bones, I was sure of it, but rather I had strong feeling that they were in fact human bones. This feeling only grew when I saw the softly moaning girl lying by the dying fire, her arm and foot missing, both having been crudely cut off by something that was definitely man-made. There was blood all around her, it was amazing she wasn't dead yet.

I stared at her, then at the charred bones, then back at her and then I threw up. Up until now I was able to keep my nausea under control but today hadn't been a good day, so I think can be forgiven for giving into my almost constant desire to throw up.

And I wasn't the only one who was sick either, though I was the most violently ill.

The sound of heaving stirred the poor girl out of her almost lifeless state and she looked around at us with terrified eyes. She could only be about thirteen years of age.

When she saw us she didn't seem to understand who we were; she didn't scream or try to move but then this might simply be because she had no strength at all.

She simply stared at us, big tears rolling down her cheeks.

I couldn't understand how she was still alive with the amount of blood that she had clearly lost when she lost her arm and foot.

Without thinking I took a step towards her. I was over my nausea now and now all I saw, all I cared about was helping this poor girl.

"Hello." I said softly as I came to crouch down by her, gently smoothing her mattered blood tangled hair from her face. She was quite pretty.

"Hi." She whispered back, her pale, almost white face was screwed up in pain, "hurts."

"Yeah," I said, "yeah, I bet." I licked my dry, cracked lips which for some reason caused her to cringe away from me.

"Hey, easy, easy. What's wrong?"

She shook her head, more tears flowing down her face.

"Come on, it's ok. We're not going to hurt you." HA! With Jade around wasn't that biggest lie ever spoken? But the girl seemed to calm down a little, by my words or because of my stroking her hair, I'll never know but whatever it was, it calmed her down enough for her to talk.

"You have to leave… leave before he-he comes back." She whispered raggedly.

"Who comes back?"

"He ate Lilly." I stared at her not sure that I had heard her right. I mean, I couldn't have, could I? I look around me at the bones littering the camp site and feel nauseous again.

"He's going to eat me next." The girl sobbed, "It hurts."

I open my mouth and then closed it again. I shook my head and kept running my hand over her head, moving her head onto my lap.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Beka."She breathed, "My name is Beka Carson, from District Six."

"Hi Beka," I say, forcing myself to smile at her, "nice to meet you. I'm Annie Cresta from District Four."

Beka smiled up at me weakly.

I could hear Jade getting impatient behind me but I ignored her and none of the others said anything so I just kept talking to Beka.

I don't remember what I said, everything and nothing probably, but she didn't complain, she just listen to what I said, her body relaxing against mine, her eyes closing and her breathing becoming shallower overtime.

I hadn't been wrong in my judgment that she was quite close to death when we found her, so I just kept talking to her until she breathed her last breaths of life.

I closed her eyes when I heard her cannon sound. It was then that I heard the sound of staggering footsteps running in our direction.

I looked at the others and they were already moving for the trees, away from the body of Beka and away from the nearing running foot steps.

I was up on my feet and up a tree the moment the source of the footsteps entered the clearing.

"Oh no, no, no." I whispered as I stared down at the source from up my tree. "No, no, no. Titus?"

I watched him as he wailed when he saw that Beka was dead, a bloody axe hanging limply from his huge fist, blood surrounding his mouth.

He's wails grew louder as he heard the Hovercraft nearing to pick up Beka's body.

I squeezed my eyes shut as he swung his axe and I heard the sound of metal hitting flesh than bone. I opened one of my eyes and immediately wished that I hadn't. Titus had cut off Beka's other arm and was beginning to chew on it.

Oh… I squeezed my eyes closed again, gulping to keep myself from throwing up again.

I heard him growl as the Hovercraft appeared in the sky above our heads. Every time it tried to take the Beka's body, Titus kept pulling the body away from them, growling and actually snarling at the Hovercraft.

It took several tries before the Hovercraft actually used some kind of electrical force to get him away from Beka's body.

He howled and cried when he was finally able to get to his feet and he saw that Beka's body and the Hovercraft were gone.

I stared down at the baby face that was crying huge tears, his sobs making me want to climb down from my tree and hug.

Stop it! I growl at myself, he eats people! He – eats – other – tributes! He'll try and eat you if you went down there.

But still he's cries were getting to me and I felt my own tears rolling down my cheeks as I listen to his miserable sobs. I could hear words that sounded like 'mama' and 'dada' along with names like 'Aaron', 'Will' and 'Beka'. Even my name was muttered in between his sobs.

After awhile he fell into a miserable sort of state of silence before lumbering off into the forest, he's axe dragging behind him before it slipped from his grasp and fell onto the forest floor with a thump.

After a few moments, I climbed down from tree and the others came out from wherever they had been hiding.

"That was…" Merle started.

"Don't," Sera and I both said, holding up our hands to stop him from saying anything further, "Don't say anything more."

"Right," Merle said, looking a little green himself.

Jade wandered over to where Titus had dropped his axe and picked it up, giving it a few experimental swings before grinning.

"I'm keeping this." she informed us.

"Ok, fine. Come on; let's just get away from this place." Cole said, looking in the direction that Titus had gone.

"I never thought…" Jade started, sounding like she is about to laugh, "I never thought I see something like that in the Games, especially not mine!"

I tried to scowl at her but I was now just too numb to do so. My facial features simply wouldn't work the way I wanted them too.

"He was-he was…" Sera whispered looking into the forest, her bottom lip trembling. I put an arm around her and she started sobbing again.

I glanced at her brother who was eyeing his twin with concern and worry, he's eyes like mine were flicking in the others direction, hoping that none of them noticed Sera's break down.

"Come on Sera." Jep whispered as he came to stand with Sera and me, "we have to move now and if the others see you like this…" he trailed off for he had said enough for Sera to once more pull herself together. I wasn't sure how many more times she'd be able to do this or how much she would be able to take of the games, but I didn't want her to die because of the others thinking she was weak and useless to them.

I looked at Jep, and honestly started to wonder how much longer he and his sister would still be with us, and I didn't mean that they had been killed by the others but in general, when they would leave our group and try and survive on their own. A part of me didn't want them to leave and another part wished that they had left earlier, so as to have spared Sera of everything that she had seen while being with our group.

We managed to calm her down before the others noticed her hysteria over what had just happen, or maybe the boys did but they were ignoring us and Jade was too busy muttering away to herself to notice.

"So, what now?" Merle asked as we started moving away from that horrid clearing.

"Snares," I say though it comes out as more of a mumble, "I want to check the snares."

"Okay." Merle said. I saw that he and Cole were continuously looking around us. Obviously Titus had freaked them out more than they had let on.

"I'll come with you." Sera said moving to my side so fast she almost pushed me over.

"I'll go too."Jep said and I wondered if now was when they were planning to disappear. I wouldn't stop… I might even disappear along with them but…

I looked over to where Merle was standing, watching us.

"How bout we all go." Jade said sounding unbelievably bright. I felt Sera shudder beside me, but she said nothing.

No one argued with Jade's suggestion so we all headed in the direction of where Merle and I had set up our snares yesterday.

Only…

"Where is it?" Merle asked me when we came to the spot where I'm sure we had set up a snare, only there was no snare…

"We set it up here." I said slowly, crouching down beside where I can see the earth has been disturbed. A snare had been set up here and had been removed. Not destroyed, but disassembled and taken.

"And someone's taken it." Merle finished for me.

"WHAT?!" Jade shrieks.

I glanced up and over at Merle and Cole who I can see are both thinking the same thing as me, whether or not our other snares were in the same shape as this one, meaning that they were gone too.

We kept going and sure enough all our snares are gone. Jade's once bright and cheery mood is now disintegrated into a foul, murderous mood that has even Cole keeping quite a significant distance from her.

"We can always head back to the lake?" I say when I look to the sky and see that dusk is close approaching, making now a perfect time to go fishing.

"Are you insane?" Sera cried, "with that thing swimming around in there?!"

"Are you hungry? Do you want to eat?" I asked since I know that they've eaten through all their provisions. I have some left, but I'm keeping what I have left for when I really, really need it. Which I feel will be soon, what with the way things are going within our group.

Since it quickly comes clear that the lake is out, we keep walking until it is completely dark and we are all exhausted. We try to catch food on the move but we are all too loud and all possible food is scared away before we even have a chance of seeing it.

Completely exhausted and hungry we set up camp in a clearing with none of us having any idea where we are or how far away from the lake we had walked. Which I can't help but think isn't the brightest of ideas, but then again, we aren't the brightest bunch of people.

We have berries and roots that I've found during my gathering, but this doesn't appease the others who are sitting around the fire grumbling and complaining.

Jade the loudest of them all. I don't know what she's hoping to achieve by this, but she's seems to be quite determined to get the message across to someone that she is not happy. I just curl up in my sleeping bag, forcing myself to ignore her and to not think about the day in anyway.

"That's more like it!" Jade yells suddenly causing me to jump. What on earth was she on about now? Then I saw a silver parachute floating down to where Jade is. I had completely forgotten about sponsors and gifts.

I shake my head and lie back down, ignoring Jade's delight over finding that she has been sent food which she doesn't share with any of us – not that anyone challenged her about it – nor did she save anything for later, she ate it all up from the sounds of it. Stupid.

I close my eyes, too tired to fight sleep, too tired to dream which I didn't. Dream I mean. I slept so heavily that I missed the anthem and the death recap; I also missed my turn of being on guard duty, Merle taking it for me until I woke up myself a couple hours before dawn.

"Wow," I mumbled, surprised, "I slept."

"Not surprising since you haven't slept more than a couple of hours in three days." Merle says from where he's sitting by the fire.

"Couldn't sleep." I reply as I move over to where he is and once more curl up in my sleeping bag.

"Hmmm," he says as he pokes the fire. "I wonder if anyone ever regrets it." he says unexpectedly.

"Regrets what?" I ask stupidly, still not fully awake.

"Becoming a Career or allying with them." He explains slowly.

"All the time I'm betting." I yawn.

He looks down at me with a grave look.

"Do you?"

"Do I what?" I'm a little slow when I first wake up and as Merle said I haven't slept more than a couple of hours in something like three days.

"Joining up with us."

"Didn't have much choice in the matter. You called out to me remember." I reminded him and he actually looked a little ashamed.

"Yeah… sorry about that. Could have saved you a whole heap of grief if I hadn't. I mean, you could be happily holed up by the lake right now, fishing away when you needed to eat, doing your own thing while we lot go about killing ourselves. You do know," he says looking down at me again, "that you're probably the only reason that we haven't yet."

I snort.

"Oh sure."

"I'm serious. How useless were we that first day here? None of us would have thought to make snares or head for the lake for water. Heck we could all be dead right now from simply eating those nightlook berries."

"Nightlock." I correct him idly, thinking over what he was saying.

In a way he was speaking the truth, that first day they really had been useless and hadn't been thinking of how they were going to survive the games in the long term but…

"You would have eventually, when you got hungry enough, headed for the lake and started fishing." I remind him.

He shrugged looking out into the trees.

"I never thought that it would be this bad." He admitted slowly.

"The games?" I guess.

"Yeah. I mean, the way they glorify it back home I thought…" he trailed off, looking up at the sky. "I thought it'd be different."

"What do you think now?" I ask softly.

"That I just want to go home. To just get as far away from this place as I possibly can."

"Yeah… same."

"You knew it was this bad didn't you? From your Grandma and everyone else?"

I shrug.

"None of them like talking about it. I mean, I only found out about my Grandma's games a week or so back and she didn't tell me everything."

"I don't think I could." Merle says poking the fire, "talk about it, I mean. I don't think I could or even want to. I would just want to forget as fast as possible everything that has happened here."

"Same, only they won't let you." Merle looks back at me from the fire, his face twisted into a frown "They'll never let you forget, "I continue slowly even though I know I'm dancing on very, very dangerous ground, "they'll force you to remember your games and every games that you mentor until the day you die."

"Do you want to win?"

"No," I say and my lips quirk into a smile as I stare into the fire, "but I want to get home more than anything."

"How does that work?"

"That's just it," I sigh, "it doesn't. You should try and get some sleep. I think today is going to be an even longer day than yesterday."

"You sure."

"Yeah, I'm not tired anymore. Go on," I smile at him, "sleep. I'll be fine."

"Alright. Well, see you in the morning. I mean, the later this morning."

I smile at him and watch as he gets into his sleeping bag. He's asleep in moments, if he's snoring was anything to go by. For some reason, this made me giggle, then I giggle some more at how silly I'm being over laughing over someone snoring.

I'm shaking my head when I notice a silver parachute and then another falling straight towards me.

Two parachutes?

I looked around at the others who are sleeping. Who did these belong to…

I felt something drop into my lap along with a second. Surprised I looked down into my lap where the two parachutes sat.

Mine? They were both… mine?

Hesitantly, I open the first one and find that a compass is lying in it. It is nice and new and gleams brightly as the fire reflects off its shiny surface, its needle spinning smoothly as I point in the direction that I was pretty sure the lake to be in. North, the lake was north. Though how far north was a completely different question entirely.

This was a wonderful gift, one that I could use throughout the games continuously, never to feel lost again if I get stuck in that awful dark and quiet part of the forest near the mountains. But why would anyone send me this. I hadn't done anything to deserve one gift let alone two and this was such a nice gift.

I turned the compass over and saw that there was something engraved on the back. 'Made in District Five' and above two words that made my heart stop…

'Thank you'

The girl... the girl from our second night here in the arena, she was from District Five.

I shake my head trying to fight back tears. District Five was sending me gift… thanking me for killing their girl tribute.

Why?

I killed her! I stopped Jade from torturing her, but that was only through killing her myself! Why would anyone thank me for that?

I stared at the compass, more than half tempted to drop it into the fire, but something stops me from doing so and I slip it into the pocket of my jacket instead.

The second parachute contained some simple painkillers. Simple but effective. I wasn't sure what I had done to deserve these either but I tucked them into my backpack all the same.

As an afterthought, I looked up at the sky, just straight up and said, quiet but I knew that anyone who was watching would know what I was saying.

"Thank you."

I don't know what I had done to deserve these gifts, obviously something that was making people want to sponsor me.

I hide the parachutes in a holed out tree trunk before crawling back into my sleeping bag and watched for dawn to rise.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yeah, so I finally got the Cannibal thing in... and believe me I sort of starting to wish I hadn't, but too late now. I hope I didn't gross out too many people. I did try to keep the gore-factor moderately low, but this is the Hunger Games after all. I felt kind of bad for Titus, like Annie does. I really need to stop getting so attached to my characters, it makes them all the harder to kill off.  
Annie got sponsors! YAY! Finally, lol. So did Jade... boo... But Annie got two, so YAY. The compass was originally meant to go to the girl from District Five - Her name was Isadora - but when she died, her District wanted the compass to go to Annie as a way of expressing their thanks for her ending Dora's suffering. I don't know, I just thought that it'd be a sweet, but useful gift that Annie might recieve.  
Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed and reviews are much loved.


	20. Chapter Twenty

**Author's Note:** Hi Everyone from Dallas, America! In Australia I would be asleep in bed at this time which is 9:30 in the morning - at home it's just after midnight - but whatever, though I am definately feeling the time differences as I would really like to be sleeping right now, but can't because I have to get to the airport in another 30 minutes so I thought I might as well post up Chapter Twenty. I haven't done much writing while I've been here in America, too busy running around Orlando's theme parks... Harry Potter Land is FANTASTIC! I could happily live there. 'cough' Anyway, however I did do some writing on the plane last night, flying from Orlando to here in Dallas and I've basically finished Part Two! There are just a few things to tidy up in the last couple of chapters, but overall, Part Two is done! YAY! I'm so happy... until I start thinking about Part Three and then I feel like crying again lol.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter. This chapter really starts to show the tension between the Careers and also how much they really do need Annie, though they still don't listen to her even when they really should.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty**

Dawn comes and brings forth a new day and I feel that today is going to be an even longer day than yesterday. Though I didn't have same 'this will be a bad day' feeling that I had yesterday, so maybe today won't be so bad.

I sat by the fire staring out into the trees, fingering my seashell necklace and my swimming medal, my other hand resting on my belly. I don't feel as nauseous as I once did, but then I haven't been allowing myself to. Though, typically enough, now that the nausea is gone I'm now starting to crave the weirdest foods, like… seaweed.

I pull a face at the very thought and yet at the same time I want to eat the foul stuff desperately. Only problem is there is no seaweed in the arena – I checked for it the first time I went to the lake – and I have no way of preparing it or any of the ingredients needed to make a seaweed meal.

And I can't get my hands on any oysters either.

Win the games, a voice in my head says, and you can have all the oysters and seaweed that you want.

Again I pull a face and try to ignore the rumbling of my stomach, which has started to ache in a different way to how it usually does with my pregnancy.

I'm hungry, really and truly hungry. We haven't eaten more than a few roots and berries last night and before that much of the same.

I shifted uncomfortable by the fire.

I was thirty too. Even though I've tried to be as conservative with my drinking, still inevitable happens, and I'm starting to run low on my water supply.

I dread to think how much, or rather how little, the others have. I know they're already in bad enough moods due to their hunger; I don't even want to think how they'll be when they're thirsty as well. Maybe I can convince them then that we should head back for the lake.

With our snares gone and will likely continue to do so whenever we set them up, the lake is really our only source of food left.

That is, if the Kraken hasn't eaten all of the fish… But I was hoping desperately that it hadn't. I was hoping it had eaten its fill and was now swimming somewhere near the bottom of the lake, slowly digesting and not needing to eat for a couple more days. But this is a Capital made creature so who knows what its eating habits are. I'm just hoping that humans aren't part of its menu.

"Damn."

I twist my head around to look behind me, to where Merle is slowly sitting up, running a hand though his messy hair.

"What?" I ask curiously, taking in his pained expression and wondering if he had somehow been hurt previously and hadn't told anyone that he had been.

"I was dreaming of the big end of year feast. You know, being down on the beach and everyone is there and we're eating and…"

"Ok, please stop," I groan holding up a hand to shut him up. The very thought of food and home was making me feel a different kinds of ill, home-sick, while also intensifying my hunger.

"Sorry," Merle said sounding sheepish, "it was just such a good dream, real-like too, and then I wake up and I find myself in this place again." He sighs heavily, "What I wouldn't give to get my hands on some lobster."

"Hmmm, seaweed." I reply without thinking and he gives me a weird look.

"I thought you didn't like seaweed."

"I don't, usually."

"But you want the stuff now, right?" He laughs when he sees my vigorous nodding; "Well one thing you can say about these games, they definitely make you appreciated the little things."

"Here here." I say before sighing. "We're going to have to head back to the lake."

Merle pulls a face before nodding. "Yeah, I know. It's just convincing these guys to go back there."

"Well," I say thinking, "we could always go, just the two of us and they can wait here while we go fishing and fill up the water bottles."

"Like they'd ever let us." He snorts when he sees my puzzled face. "They'll think that we're running off with their water bottles. That we'll never come back once we leave."

I hesitate and he shakes his head.

"You really want to leave, don't you?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't run off with their water bottles, I mean that would mean…"

"Certain death? Cresta you are definitely the wrong type of person to be in these games. I mean, how many times has something happen that you've jumped forward to try and save the person it's happening to?"

Again I hesitate and he shakes his head, looking torn between exasperation and… admiring?

"You know what, never mind. Look, we'll try to convince the others to come back to the lake; hopefully their hunger will speak louder than their fear of the Kraken."

"Hopefully." I say and I go back to staring into the fire.

"Hey," Merle says unexpectedly.

"Hmmm?"

"When you decided to do your disappearing act,"

"Hmmm."

"Can I come?" I blink at him a couple of times in surprise and he looks uncomfortable before shrugging.

"I just got this feeling that my numbers coming up," I open my mouth to argue, to sooth, to do something, but he shakes his head, "and I'd rather not have it come up while I'm around Jade." He thinks for a minute, "or around Cannibal kid."

I wince at that and mumble "Titus."

"Huh?"

"He's name's Titus," I sigh sadly, feeling my heartache for the poor boy, despite what he has done.

"How do you…" I give him a look and he shakes his head and mutters "damn babysitter," under his breath.

I don't even bother replying.

"Hey," He says again.

"Hmmm?"

"If we have another run in with that Titus kid and he manages to take me down," I cringe away from him not liking where this is going at all, "do me the favour and spear me or something? Cause I ain't going like that girl went," he shudders before looking me straight in the eye, "Please Annie?"

Why do people keep putting me into this position? Why?

I look away from him, feeling pained and annoyed and sick and all sorts of other jumbled up emotions before I groan out a soft "ok,"

"Thanks. And um, same goes for Jade too. I don't want to go like that either." I nod and hug my legs to my chest.

"Do the same." I whisper and he looks at me, "please, I don't want to go by their hands either."

"Deal," He spits on his palm and holds it out to me. After a moment I do the same and we shake, sealing our deal.

"What are you two up to?" I hear Sera asking sleepily from where she was curled up nearby.

"Talking about seaweed and how wacky a plant it is." Merle says and I fight back a smile when Sera looks at us in confusion.

"Sea-weed? What's that?"

"A weed that grows in the sea." Merle replies brightly and I fight harder not to laugh.

"Oh…" Sera didn't look like she believed us but still she got up and joined us by the fire. As she sits down her stomach rumbles. She looks momentarily embarrassed but since both mine and Merle's are making similar sounds, she quickly gets over her embarrassment.

"I don't suppose we have any food left?" She asks me hopefully.

Merle and I both shake our heads in unison.

"Only roots and berries and there isn't much left of either."

Sera started grimacing.

"We're going to have to go back to the lake aren't we?"

"Yup."

Sera groaned and buried her face into her hands.

"It'll be ok. You can stay by the tree line if it makes you feel safer." I tell her.

She hesitates before nodding.

"I don't know if Jade..." She started.

"If she wants to go hungry then she can stay here, but we're going to the lake." I said with such firmness that even I was surprised. The other two sort of blinked at me causing my face to feel warm but I was determined to stand my ground.

Of course that being said, standing my ground when up against Jade isn't always the wisest of things.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked her feeling annoyed when she and everyone else is awake and Merle and I have suggested heading back to the lake for food and water, to which Jade has immediately shot down this suggestion.

She scowls furiously at me which of course means that she is but just that she doesn't want to admit it.

"I want to find those brats who messed up our TRAPS!"

"We can hunt for them while we're heading back for the lake." I say trying to remain calm and patient.

"Just because you weaklings are hungry doesn't mean..."

"We're going to run out of water soon." I say loudly over her, "and running out of water is bad for everyone, even you."

Jade opens her mouth in fury.

"She's right Jade." Cole says softly. I know that he doesn't like the idea of returning to lake anymore that than Jade does, but he's siding with me nonetheless.

"We're not going back!" She snarled at him furiously and that was when I saw it. Saw what I never, ever expected to see, not from Jade.

She was scared. Of the Kraken. She was actually afraid of something. I found this to be extremely amusing and had a hard time not laughing.

"What are you grinning about?" Jade snapped when she saw that I was smiling.

"Um, nothing." I reply quickly, making a note to keep a tighter grip on my amusement.

After that we all agreed to head back to the lake, only problem was Jade wanted to lead us back and since she, one didn't want to go back and two didn't know the way back I found this to be a rather stupid idea.

I fingered the compass in my pocket, knowing the moment I took it out and the others saw it I would lose it to Jade faster than I could blink. I bounced slightly on the balls of my feet in irritation.

We were going the wrong way and no matter how many times I tried to point this fact out, none of the others listened to me. I was almost starting to think that they wanted to starve to death.

I huffed and crossed my arms.

Going the wrong way! We're going the wrong way!

The others started to believe me when we entered the creepy silent forest and proceed to become completely lost in its darkness.

"Don't," Cole murmured to me as we started to set up camp and I was basically ready to explode, "say a thing."

"But…"

"Annie…" He warned and nodded towards Jade who was looking all the more murderous. No one slept much that night. Bad enough being in a dark, silent forest without being with someone who spent the whole night cleaning her weapons.

No one was in a good mood the following day, Jade least of all. She became even more murderous when the others told me to just lead the way to lake, even though now I was actually quite lost. But after a quick and subtle check of my compass, I determined where north was and just started walking in that direction. Also I noticed there were other clues for me to use to help me find our way back.

"How do you even know where you're going?" Jade snarled furiously at my back, she was walking basically on my heels. I looked back at her, trying not to wrinkle my nose at her foul smelling breath and opened my mouth to reply only.

"Oh and like you had any idea where you were going yesterday Jade!" Merle growled. I don't think I've ever seen him look so ill-tempered before. And that's actually saying something since I've seen him quite a few times looking angry during our time in these games.

"It's fine!" I yelled before Jade could respond, with words or her fists. "I have a pretty good idea where to go; we just have a long walk ahead of us, that's all."

"But how do you know?" Jade growled, eying me suspiciously.

I sigh. Why couldn't she just trust me? Everyone else did, or maybe that was why.

"You want to know how I know where to go?"

"Yes."

"I'm basically walking in the direction we came from."

"And how do you know that?"

I don't even bother answering her instead I simply pointed to the upgrowth where you can clearly see a path has been made from heavy footfalls and the scuffing of feet.

Jane looked like she'd happily punch me when the others start to laugh but I move quickly out of her range.

I tried to set a steady and reasonable pace, but due to both hunger and thirst now and being even further way from the lake than ever because of all of our hiking in the wrong direction yesterday I was starting to worry if we'd even make it back to lake before some disaster happened to us.

After a couple of hours of walking through the forest, my mouth was dry and my lips even more cracked than ever before and I was starting to feel dizzy.

The others weren't looking much better, even Jade now appears to have lost her fire. That is until you looked at her face and you saw just how furious she was.

I just didn't realise until too late just how furious she really was…

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yes, I know, a half-hearted cliffhanger at the end of a rather short chapter. I know, I'm sorry. I forgot just how short this chapter was. But it's more a build up chapter than anything else, next chapter... there's a bit more to it, though I was depressed when I wrote it.  
I'll try and post the next ASAP. I'm kind of hoping to reach 100 reviews by the time I finish this fanfic, so you know, reveiws are loved and appreciated.  
Bye for now. Next time I update I'll be back in the Land Down Under!


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

**Author's Note:** I thought I would be updating this chapter while I was in Hollywood - multiple flight changes meant I ended up flying back home from LA - but when I kept trying to update, Hollywood's airport internet security kept denying me, so here I am at home - exhausted and tired but it's only 3 o'clock in the afternoon here, so I can't go to bed yet - uploading this chapter.  
Brace yourselves for this is a tearjerker... or at least it is for me when I was writing it and then when I was proof-reading it.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-One**

By late afternoon I knew that we were all in serious trouble. The dizziness was worse than ever and my mouth and throat are so dry that I'm finding it hard to swallow. But I'm sure I can hear water, I'm sure of it. It's faint, but I know that what I'm hearing is the sound of water splashing against water.

I excitedly tell the others, but some – Serendipity and Jeopardy for example – who are simply too exhausted to muster any real enthusiasm.

"You hear water?" Jade growled giving my shoulders a hard shove to get my full attention.

"Yes." I say trying not to show how her shove had hurt my already sore and aching body.

"I don't." she snarls.

"It's faint, but its there." I look to Merle for support, smiling weakly when he nods his head dully.

"It's just a bit further." I say trying to encourage Sera and Jep to get back to their feet. "We'll get to the lake by night fall, I'm sure." Maybe even earlier, if we set a good pace.

"No!"

"What?" I looked around at Jade, not feeling overly surprised that she was objecting to my plan. When didn't she?

"You've had us walking all day and you expect us to keep walking in the direction where you think you can hear water in?"

"But I _can_ hear water. And it's in that direction." I say trying to remain calm, but it was hard. I was tried and thirsty and I was just sick of Jade and her constant need to fight with me over every little thing.

"So you say. How do we know you're not leading us into some kind of trap?"

"Trap?" I say rather dumbly. "What trap? Who's trap?"

Jade scowled down at me.

"Jade." Cole says sounding exasperated and tired, "just let the girl led us to water."

"How do you even know she's even leading us in the direction of water? As I said before, she might be leading us into a trap."

"How would she even know if there are any traps set up in the direction that she is leading us? She's been with us the whole time?" Asked an exhausted Jep, a question I thought was rather brave of him to ask as Jade was now glaring knives at him, only he was too tired to actually notice that she was.

Jade waved her arms around her in agitation.

"It's this kind of thinking that is stopping us from gaining any sponsors." She screamed at Cole who simply looked back at her blankly.

"It's been six days!" She screamed, "Six days! And only one sponsor has come. ONE! And do you want to know why?" She took a threatening step towards Cole who kept standing where he was, but was watching Jade with extra care, his hand now resting upon the huge sword strapped to his hip," because we've been listening to her!"

"Her, whose been keeping us alive for these past six days!" Merle snapped out suddenly and to my horror he actually took a step towards Jade. What was he doing? Thinking?

"She," he jerked his finger back at me as he rounded on Jade, "is the only reason why we haven't died earlier for hunger and thirst! She has kept us alive because she knows how to survive. She knows stuff that we never even bothered to learn because we thought we didn't need to because we knew how to use weapons. Fat lot of good they've done us! We might be armed and know how to use these weapons, but we have no food, but we have her! She's kept us alive! Without her, we'd have starved or eaten the wrong berries and would have been dead by now. We owe her our lives. She said right from the start that we should have stayed around the lake, but we didn't listen to her and now we're paying the price for it. Don't go blaming her for your own failure in judgment."

I stared at him, my mouth hanging open slightly and I knew I wasn't the only one who was staring at him in disbelief.

"It's true," Merle continues looking back at me, "You all know it."

I feel my face burn with embarrassment until I look over his shoulder and see something that makes my heart stop.

"Mer..."

I squeeze my eyes shut because there is nothing that I can do. I can't move fast enough to even try and stop the inevitable from happening, even though I do take step forward without even thinking.

Hot and sticky liquid hits my face and something hard thumps against my chest, almost winding me before falling to my feet. I can hear Sera screaming without restraint and Jep and Cole yelling incoherently, but I still don't open my eyes.

"I feel better now." I can almost hear Jade's glee as a cannon booms out around the arena. "He was irritating me with all his talking."

Don't - don't open your eyes. Don't, don't, don't...

"What's the matter Annie?" Jade says sweetly. I can hear her moving closer to me, "Got a problem with what just happened?"

Run. Just run. Don't open your eyes, just run.

"Annie..." I hear Sera weak cry of warning and my eyes open on their own accord, self-preservation being stronger than the desire to not look upon the body of a dead friend.

I duck out of the way of Jade swinging, bloody axe, sidestepping her and watch as she staggers from the might of her swing.

She trips over his headless body and I feel my heart restrict but I can't think about him now, I can't... I have to - I have to run! Run hard and fast, away from this place. Away from them, all of them.

I bend down and snatch my pack up and swing it onto my back without breaking my sprint.

I'm almost away when something hard and heavy hits me in the shins and I collapse into a heap on the forest floor.

I twist around and see that Jade has thrown her axe and that is lying at my feet but before I can even hope to grab it, she is on me, axe magically back in her hand and she was now swing it around her head.

"I'm going to enjoy this." She informs me with an insane smile and I know she is. She going to love killing me. She'll make a show out of it, torturing me until I am screaming for death.

She cuts my cheek and grins as she watches my blood roll down my face and onto the forest floor. I squirm beneath her heavy body, throwing punches and trying to roll her off me but she's so much bigger than I am, not to mention stronger. She also really wants to kill me; she is going to use all her strength to do just that.

I don't want to die! Not like this!

I can feel hot tears rolling down my already sticky face. Sticky from both mine and Merle's blood. Merle...

She killed Merle. In cold blood, she killed him! And for what?

_"I feel better now."_

He was gone now, forever! Never to come back! And she says that she 'feels better now'.

I fight even harder, even though I'm hurting from the cuts that she is inflicting upon me, along with all her weight being pressed down upon my belly.

My belly... where my baby was.

She was going to kill my baby because that is what will happen when I die, my baby will die as well and...

I feel this strange burst of energy shoot through me and found the strength to move my legs up and underneath Jade, pressing me feet flat against her stomach and with the strength of spending every free moment swimming and running I kicked her off me.

She let out a startled shriek which quickly changes to a scream of pain as I kicked her again, this time in the chest, feeling an odd sense of satisfaction as I hear the break of bones. As she falls back, I kick her one last time, this time right in her face, breaking her nose and maybe her jaw too, but I don't stay around to check as I'm on my feet, straightening my pack on my back as I run.

It hurts to run, but at least my ankles weren't broken from having the wooden handle of the axe hitting them.

I slowed down to a walk and pulled out the compass, checking that I was heading in the right direction, even though a part of me thought that this was a really stupid thing, but I needed water desperately.

I hadn't thought that Jade would actually give chase which was why I stopped to check me compass.

"You're dead District Four!" I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard Jade's scream.

I looked frantically over my shoulders, in the direction that I had run from, but I couldn't see her among the trees, but that didn't mean that she wasn't nearby, even with her screaming being muffled due to my breaking her nose.

I took off at a sprint even though my whole body ached and I was terribly thirsty and I really didn't feel like I could run any further. But somehow, I was able to keep going because even if I was in bad shape, Jade was worse off, running with broken ribs.

But still, I was terrified that I wouldn't be fast enough to escape her, that she would catch up to me and my life would be over.

I don't know how far I ran for or how long, my brain wasn't thinking of any of those details only that I had to keep running, that I had to get to lake.

I can hear running feet behind me, but I don't look around, simply put even more effort into my aching legs, forcing them to run fast.

Run... just keep running. Run until you can't run anymore, run until you fall and then you must crawl...

I was so intent of running, to get to the lake that I wasn't even paying attention to my surrounding, so I didn't see the sudden drop in the forest floor and I tumbled straight over the edge of the ridge, rolling and bouncing down the slope, my body curled into a ball, arms around my head to protect it as I continued to tumble.

When I finally stop, I feel sick and dizzy, sprawl out at the bottom on the slope, but I can hear Jade screaming and yelling somewhere nearby, I don't know how close, but too close for my liking, so I force my weary, screaming body to its feet and start running again, but I am now filled with hope.

The roaring noise of the waterfall is close by, so close now. I feel myself grinning despite myself.

Right, now to get even.

I pick up a large fallen branch as I run towards the direction of lake. Its heavy and it slows me down, but I know that my fall down the slope had actually given me time as I'm sure that Jade would not take my way down meaning that she'll have to go hunting for an easier way down.

I stumble onto the sandy beach of the lake, feeling relief even though of course I'm still in danger. Great danger.

I run for the water, swinging the large, heavy branch over my head and with as much force as I can muster, I smack it against the water, causing large ripples. I run along the water line, hitting that water every couple of feet with the branch.

Please, please, please.

"DISTRICT FOUR!"

Please, please, please.

I throw the branch as far as I can into the lake, watching as it hits water with a loud splash.

Please, please, please.

Large ripples are moving from the middle of the lake, heading in the direction that I had started hitting the water, to where Jade was sprinting after me. She wasn't helping herself as she was running along the waterline, splashing through the waves as she chased after me.

Come on, come on...

"District Four you are so... "Her sentenced finished in a scream and I heard the sounding of a tree being smashed apart, but I didn't look over my shoulder to see what had happened, I just kept running along the beach towards the rocks that went out in the water. I just need to get to them and then I was certain I would be safe.

Puffing and heaving, I made it to the rocks, clambering over them, scratching my hands and knocking my knuckles against them as I did so.

When I was safely over them, I stood on tiptoe and looked back. Giant tentacles were smashing down trees closest to the waterline.

I could vaguely make out Jade running back along the beach and into the trees. I saw that she now had a slight limb to her run and felt a very vague sense of pleasure.

Then that pleasure turned to feeling sick and I threw up. Or rather, dry heaving. My arms were crossed against my aching stomach as I heaved up nothing, my stomach of course empty from not eating anything in days.

I needed food.

Drink first, a voice that sounds like Grandma's.

I staggered to a small pool of water, completely sheltered by surrounding rock, a nice hiding place as no one can see this little place unless they're looking straight down into it.

My hands were shaking badly as they cupped into the water, blood my wounds seeping into the crystal clear surface, but I ignore that, my thirst too great to pay any heed to the blood.

When I've drank my fill, I started looking to my wounds.

I barely recognised my face when I looked into the watery mirror.

My lips and the skin around them is clean from drinking the lake water, but the rest of my face is just covered in blood. My blood, his blood...

I dunk my head straight into shallow water, furiously washing the blood away. I came close to almost drowning myself with my ferocity and come back up gasping for air but at least my face was clean, even though the cuts that Jade has so delightfully given me were now open and blood was once more streaming from them. But at least it was my blood now and not... his.

With the first aid kit that I had been lunging around for the past six days, I clean and bandage myself up, taking one of the painkillers as I do so, surprised by how fast it actually works.

I had originally wished to take two, but it was a good thing that I hadn't because I think two would have sent me into a sleep that I possibly might not wake up from what with the state I was currently in. Even with just one, I feel drug induced sleepiness and I feel slow and heavy, but at least I don't hurt anymore.

I splash my face and force myself to focus. I needed food.

I crawled slowly to my feet, swaying slightly but feeling a little better than I had. Right, food...

Something thumped down upon my shoulder before falling to sandy ground.

"Ow..." I mumble rubbing my shoulder before looking down at my feet, almost scared too. The last time I had looked down at my feet after something hit me... I shake my head, shaking the horrific image from my head.

A silver parachute sat down by my feet. I hesitate before opening it slowly. The most glorious smell met my nostrils as I pulled a warm steel container into my hands.

FOOD!

I opened the container lid and sure enough food was inside it. I desperately wanted to eat it all, as all my favourite food had been packed into it, so tightly that its almost overflowing but I force myself to take my time and to not to eat it all at once.

I somehow managed to keep from eating everything in the container, leaving enough to have for breakfast tomorrow morning before I went fishing.

"Thank you." I say softly to the sky. I wasn't sure where the cameras were, but I knew at least one would see my thanks.

I started thinking about getting ready for bed when I remembered something important that I needed to do.

I took a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart as I started to making my way out of my hidden sanctuary, peering in all directions over the rocks to make sure that there were no other tributes nearby.

Once I was sure I was clear, I crept as low as possible among the rocks and headed for shore, picking up twigs, sticks and leaves as I went. When I had collected as much as I was sure I needed I snuck back to my hidden rock pool.

With care, I built a tiny boat as well as a tiny stick person and by the time night was falling, I was ready let them set sail.

It's an old tradition in District Four for when a love one or a friend has died to build a sticks and leaves boat along with a stick person and to set it sailing at either dawn or dusk onto the ocean. It's meant to symbolise the freeing of their soul so that they will be able sail free on the sea forever.

I watch the warm sunset colours dance across the sky as I set the tiny boat, along with its stick captain, into the gently lapping water. There was a small opening among the rocks (though large enough for me to slip through if need be), that open out into the lake and I sat back as I watched the boat bobbed up and down in the water and out of the opening in the main part of the lake.

I close my eyes as I feel tears roll down my cheeks.

"Goodbye Merle."

I curled up in my sleeping bag, tucking myself underneath an overhanging rock, though I do stand up and watch the sky when the Capital's Anthem starts to play and Merle's face appears across the sky. More tears rolled down my cheeks as I curled back up into my sleeping bag.

When would this all be over?

* * *

**Author's Note:** Just you all know, I had a really hard time writing this chapter. Merle's death, originally, was a lot more gruesome and had more to it, but I think I prefer this way. I don't really like writing gruesome things and I didn't want to go too much into Merle's death, no more than I needed to and as I'm writing from Annie's POV, I just thought that she wouldn't want to think too much on it, for obvious reasons. Anyway, I wrote this chapter a lot of different ways before finally settling on the more simplistic and less visual version of Merle's death... or did you guys want me to go into detail of his death?  
Only one more chapter is left for Part Two. I'll post that chapter up soon and then you might not hear from me for a little while since a) school is starting up again in a week and b) I haven't written all that much of Part Three and I want to get a few chapters written up before I start posting up its chapters. Any suggests as to what you guys might like to happen in Part Three... besides the obvious death of Jade. Don't worry I want her dead too. But annoyingly, I need her around for a bit longer, so her death won't be for a little while longer. Sorry. So if any of you have any suggestions as to somethings you might like to happen in Part Three just let me know.

Bye for now, I want to go to bed but need to stay awake for at least another three hours.


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

**Author's Note:** Hi Everyone. Here is the last chapter for Part Two. As I said before it might be awhile until I update again as one I need to write Part Three (Obviously!) and two I'm heading into the final weeks of my Diploma, so I have to focus on school for the time being.  
But enough about all that, please enjoy Chapter Twenty-Two even though it is very short... sorry about that and... it's a cliffhangers 'runs and hides underneath desk so as to avoid rotten fruit'.  
Anyway, please enjoy.

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**Chapter Twenty-Two**

_Please..._

_I feel better now._

_Please…_

_I'm sorry_

_Please, please, please…_

_I feel better now._

I woke up the following morning fighting back a scream of terror. The nightmares last night had been the worst that I'd ever had.

I ran a hand through my loose and messy hair, trying not to think too much of smell of it or the smell of the rest of me.

I sit up cautiously in my rock pool haven, staring around at the rocks that stand so high, one rock even tilted over slightly so as to hide this lovely little hiding spot from view.

What am I going to do? I wondered as I slowly got out of my sleeping bag, shivering in the early morning chill.

Was it always this cold in the mornings? I don't remember, but I'm cold now. I wrapped my jacket more tightly around me as I pick up my dinner from last night and start to eat the rest of it. It was all still very good, even if it was now cold.

Everything was cold; I shivered more violently in my jacket, trying to contemplate my next step over my chattering teeth.

I would need a fire if this cold kept up, but a fire could mean death, what with it being a sort of beacon for people who are hunting you to find you with. I would need a fire at least to cook the food that I was hoping to catch. And to make a fire, you need wood, which means leaving my sanctuary….

I groaned.

I didn't want to leave this place. I felt so safe here and Jade might still be close by waiting for me to reappear.

It took awhile for me to decide what I would do, so that when I did finally stick my head out of my sanctuary, it was midmorning.

I almost didn't go through with my plan to collect fire wood – and food such as roots and berries – for when I left my sanctuary it was surprisingly warm out in the Sun.

Come on, I said to myself, get on with it. The faster you do this, the faster you can get back to safety. So gritting my teeth I set off across the rocks, once more keeping very low and choosing to go around rocks instead of over them which would have been faster but I would be more easily seen. But as I came to the beach, leaving the safety of the rocks, my bravery started to leave me. The forest looked ominous even in the bright sunlight. Behind any tree, Jade – or even one of the others – could be hiding.

I swallowed nervously.

Come on, just run for it! It was, after all, only a short run up the beach to the first line of trees, but it was what was behind those trees that I was worried about.

I fingered my knife that was strapped to my hip, wishing for I'm guessing not the last time, that I had had time to grab my spear or any other substantial weapon come to think of it. But I hadn't had time… I wonder why.

I closed my eyes and shook my head. No good thinking about all that, I told myself firmly, now come on.

Bent down as low as I could go while still being able to run, I sprinted for the trees, trembling when I reached them, but no one jumped out at me. A rabbit looked at me curiously before bounding off but that was all I saw when I entered the forest.

But that didn't put me at ease, if anything it made me even more alert to my surrounding, my ears and eyes open for anything and everything that could possible cause me any kind of harm.

I collected broken branches and twigs, along with any forest food I could scrounge for I didn't dare go too far into the trees for fear that I might be attacked at any moment and I wanted to stay as close to the lake as I possibly could.

But even with all my caution, I still wasn't cautious enough and just as I was heading back for the lake, my foot snagged on something that was defiantly not a tree root.

I looked down at the forest floor and groaned. Oh cra…

I feet were cleanly knocked out from under me and I was sent hurtling upwards into the treetops, neatly caught up in a finely woven net.

I swore, loudly and rather verbosely, that as an afterthought, I realised that I had probably embarrassed my poor grandmother terribly with my sailor mouth language. I had probably also made a few mouths back home drop. I wasn't known for having a sailor's mouth but if you had been in my situation, what would you have done? Swearing, at that present moment in time, seemed like an extremely logical thing to do. Also it vented out quite a bit of the stress I had been feeling up until this point.

When I was done swearing and cursing everything and anything I felt quite flat and exhausted. This was not a situation I wanted to be in.

I pulled out my knife and tried vainly to cut through the netting, but it did me no good. The netting was made out of some kind of fine wire, delicate in looks but as strong as any well-made rope in District Four.

At this point I started to panic.

I was in serious trouble. If anyone tried to kill me I wouldn't be able to defend myself, I would be able to do nothing against their sword or spear… or trident.

My fingers froze on the netting as I thought of all of the tributes that Finnick had killed using a woven net and his trident. I was probably feeling the exact same way as they had when they had been caught in his net.

I pushed desperately at the netting, trying to break it with my bare hands but only succeeded in causing my hands to bleed as the thin wire cut into them. I tried to pry the top of the net apart but once again only succeed in cutting my fingers.

I pressed a hand to my mouth and tried to keep myself from crying. After everything I had so far been through during these damn games, I was going to be killed in the same way that my boyfriend had killed all his victims.

I wondered if Finnick saw the irony in this as well. No, he was probably out of his mind with worry and terror for me. And my Grandmother? Was she saying her goodbyes to me now? Knowing that I would be dead in only a short while?

I pressed my hand to my belly where my terror and desperation had woken my unborn baby and it was causing havoc inside of me. I winced as my belly ached and turned, but I as this was probably the closet I would ever be with my child I couldn't bring myself to mind.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to my child, "I'm sorry I wasn't better at this, smarter. If I had been smarter we probably wouldn't have gone through all the horror that we have. I'm sorry we have to go in this way and… I'm just sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't a better mother to you."

At least I know that this isn't a trap made by Jade, I thought grimly as I looked up through the top most branches that hung overhead, at the Sun that was now beginning to sink. I just hope that she wouldn't be the one who found me up here.

Surprisingly I actually managed to doze. It wasn't exactly comfortable, being crushed in the net and having all the wood that I had collected digging into my back, but I was physically and emotionally exhausted and sleep seemly seemed to be the best way to spend my time… until I was killed.

I woke with a jump when I heard the snapping of a twig somewhere below me.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Here it comes… I could almost hear my death coming towards me…

Let it be quick… please, let it be quick.

"District Four?"

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**Author's Note:** I know, don't you all hate me? I'm sorry but this was the only way I could think to end Part Two and yes, I'm sorry to say you might have to sit on the question 'Who is it' for at least a couple of weeks while I write up Part Three.  
Anyway, thank you all for all your support and favouriting. Hopefully I will not be long with writing Part Three and that the next couple of weeks of my Diploma won't be too busy and stressful... HA!  
Bye for now. Reviews are much loved as you all probably know.


	23. Part Three: Chapter Twenty-Three

**Author's Note:** Hi Everyone. Long time no see. Sorry about that. My Diploma course took a lot out of me and I didn't feel like writing much. But I'm now I'm finished and on break for a little while, so I can get back to writing and finishing this fanfic. And maybe starting a sequel, don't know yet.  
Anyway, enough chatter from me, please enjoy the first chapter of Part Three: THE VICTOR and let me know what you think.

* * *

**Part Three**

**THE VICTOR**

_**Part Three's Summary:** Annie Cresta is the seventeen year old girl tribute for District Four in the 70th Hunger Games._

_In the past seven days she has seen more horrific deaths than she had ever seen before in her whole life. And now death is hunting her. She is no longer a member of the Careers having made an enemy out of Jade who wants nothing more than to give Annie a slow and torturous death. That is, if she can find Annie. And Annie has no wish to be found, least of all by Jade. But fate has never been on Annie's side and with the final days of this terrible Games approaching, Annie is going to find her life getting all the more complicated in her fight to survive. She now not even sure that she wants to._

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

"District Four?"

Wait that sounded like…

I opened my eyes and looked down from where I was trapped in the net in the treetops to where a tall, dark skinned young man was looking up at me from the forest floor. He looked amused.

"It's not funny!" I snapped at him and his amused smile immediately faded.

"No," he agreed solemnly, "I suppose not." He looked around him thoughtfully, shifting the powerful looking spear from one hand to the other, "where's the rest of you?" he asked.

"I don't know and to tell all truths, I don't want to." I say and then I closed my eyes, "Listen District Eleven can you please just get on with it?" I couldn't help but peek from beneath my eyelids at him.

District Eleven gave me a funny look.

"Get on with what?"

"Ah... killing me." I opened my eyes again as I said this.

Now he actually looked insulted.

"I'm not a killer."

"Isn't this your trap?" I asked, wincing at the word 'killer'.

He hesitated.

"It wasn't meant to be used like this, it wasn't meant for you."

"It wasn't?" I asked not really following him. He shook his dark head.

"It was meant to catch food more than anything else…"

"You made this," I say, interrupting him as I give the fine netting a slight shake, "for catching rabbits?"

"There are deers' in here as well and there are a lot of us to feed… at least there was." he pulled a face before shaking his head, "it's also a means of protection, trap one of you before you got one of us, but I don't think Switches thought this plan all the way through. I mean, we've trapped you but what are we suppose to do with you now?"

"I don't suppose you could just let me go?" I suggest without much hope.

"So that you can tell the rest of you where we are?" he asked though he sounded doubtful.

"I won't. Jade's out to kill me," I say rather blankly. I've never had anyone out to kill me before, not directly at least, "so it'd actually be smarter if you let me go because she's hunting for me and if you don't want her to kill you and the rest along with me, you really should let me go so that I can run as far away from here as I can."

"Or we could just kill her." A whole new voice enters our conversation.

A scrawny boy who looked to be around my age came to stand by District Eleven, his blue eyes were intelligent and calculating, his red hair sticking up everywhere from his head.

District Eleven scowled down at the scrawny red head.

"That's…"

"What?" the scrawny red head demanded, "She's a Career! One of them! This is probably a trap of some kind." Once again I'm being accused of being involved in a nonexistent – to my knowledge at least – trap? Why does this keep happening to me?

"I don't think that she is." District Eleven said and I blinked at him in surprised. Was he defending me?

"You don't know that for sure. You can't trust her.

"Her District partner was killed yesterday and I don't think it was _her_ who killed him." I hunched my shoulders and hung my head; I didn't want to think about him.

"She might have, you don't know."

"Willow trusts her." My head shot up and looked back down at them.

"Willow trusts everybody!" The red headed boy cried waving his arms about him wildly.

"Look, she's been hanging up there for awhile and no one has come to free her," District Eleven held up his hand to keep the other boy from speaking, "and before I started speaking to her, I did a quick walk around this area. No one is here, she's by herself and I'm not leaving her up there to starve and for the birds to eat."

"But what if she goes and gets the others?"

"You're not going to, are you?" District Eleven called up to me. I shook my head.

"I just want to get back to my hiding spot before it gets dark." I say honestly. "Before dusk preferably."

"Why?" the red head asked still looking up at me suspiciously while District Eleven moves to the tree trunk that my trap is hanging from and starts fiddle with something there.

"I want to go fishing."

"Fishing?"

"Um, yes. Dawn and dusk are the best time to catch fish. Though," I suddenly discovered a flaw in my plan, "I don't have a rod or any netting." I pulled a face; making either was going to take time to make, possibly longer than daylight had left in it.

I suddenly noticed both boys were staring up at me.

"What?" I asked feeling uncomfortable under their gaze.

"You can fish?" District Eleven asked slowly.

"Yes…" I say, not sure where this conversation was going to go.

"Even with that thing…"

"The Kraken?" I interrupted the red head and he scowled up at me, before continuing.

"Yes, that… thing. You're going to go fishing even with that thing swimming around in the lake."

"Yes."

Both boys looked at each other than back at me.

"Why?" I asked still feeling uncomfortable, "Why do you care?"

"Because, and maybe you Careers haven't noticed, but food sources are running a little thin at the moment." The red head sneered at me.

"What?"

The red head snorted at me in disgust.

"You know, food sources, like rabbits and deer and…"

"I know what food sources means," I snapped back, irritated by this boy's attitude, "I was just surprised that's all. I saw a rabbit when I entered the forest only a couple of hours ago." But now that I thought about, I hadn't seen many of them or really any other animals around the forest in the last couple of days.

"So that's why you stole our traps." I sigh. District Eleven looked ashamed while the red headed boy looked smug.

"And a nice feast we had that night too." He sneered at me.

"Don't let Jade hear you say that," I warned him, "I know for a fact that after me, those who stole our traps are next on her 'to kill' list." I was pleased to see his smugness face drop and turn completely white underneath his freckles.

"Come on, we don't have time for this. You know we have more to worry about than just the Careers." District Eleven snapped at us impatiently and suddenly I felt the netting around me loosen before dropping a few feet while I let out a frighten little scream before District Eleven snatched at the wire rope, slowing my fall so that when I hit the ground it was a thud rather than a crash, but still I was left rather winded.

"Garth!" The red head complained, "Why did you do that? She's going to run to them now!" If I had the energy, I would have snorted but as I was still completely winded, I didn't. I could barely get enough air into my lungs at it was.

District Eleven or Garth – last name or first name I wasn't sure – came to kneel next to me, even helped me to my feet.

"Do you have a water bottle?" he asked me and I nodded weakly, "does it have water in it?" he asked and again I nodded.

He pulled it out my pack, careful not to knock any of the wood I had bound to the back of it and handed it to me.

"Thanks," I wheezed and drank heartily.

"Looks like you've been through a rough time." Garth commented as he inspected my beaten, cut-up face and my blood and torn clothes.

I looked away from him, shifting uncomfortably.

"Thanks." I mumbled, "For letting me down. I'm – I'm going to head back to the lake now." I turned to leave but I felt a hand on my shoulder, stopping me from going any further.

"Is there fish in the lake?"

"Ah, there was… I, um, haven't actually fished there for a couple of days." I admit a little sheepishly, as my whole plan of survival was sort of depending on there being fish in the lake "the others, they um, once the Kraken appeared, didn't want anything to do with the lake, and we left it a couple of days ago to try our luck in the forest and around the mountains." I shudder when I think of the dark, creep forests at the roots of the mountains. And I wasn't the only one either. Both Garth and rude red head both looked disturbed when I mention the mountains and their forests.

"But you're hiding out around the lake, right?" The rude red head pressed.

I hesitated before answering, not wanting to give my hiding spot away, even to Garth.

"Yes," I say slowly, "It's the only water source I've been able to find and if you're smart about it, I don't think the Kraken will attack you unless you provoke it in some way. Also," I add as an afterthought, "Jade's scared of it."

"The lake or the Kraken?" Red head asked.

"Both. I don't think she can swim." Actually I'm pretty sure she can't as Cole clearly showed me he couldn't when I saved him from the Kraken.

The boys once again looked at each other and I felt that my peaceful hiding place was about to get a whole lot more crowded.

The lake is a big place, I chided myself firmly. There are lots of other rock caves and coves they can hide in without intruding upon yours.

After this revealment of the Careers weaknesses, the two boys, in particular the rude red headed kid seem to see me less of threat to their survival and in fact let me go, though before they did they did make me swear not to breath a word to the Careers about them.

Though as I pointed out to them, if I did happen to run into the Careers, in particular Jade, there would be very little speaking involve... as well as breathing, on my part.

Even though they did seem to trust me enough to believe that I was no longer a member of the Careers, they still made me be the first one to leave. Not that I minded all that much, but I made a point, even though I really hadn't wanted to as I just wanted to return to my hiding place, zigzag my way back to the beach so as to (hopefully) throw anyone trailing me off before they figured out just where I was hiding.

I return to my little cove, feeling immediately safe, hidden amongst the rocks.

I spent an hour making myself a fishing rod. I was actually quite proud of it when I was done and hoped it wouldn't be lost like the others I had made during the first meeting with the Kraken.

Once I had finished making it, I snuck out the little opening that opened out to the lake. There was a little ledge that I could sit on as I cast my line and waited for a bite. I didn't have to wait very long before I felt a tug on my line and I reeled in a fat fish. As always, I felt bad about taking its life, but hunger was getting the better of me and it wasn't long before I had it cooking over the small fire that I had built.

With greedy fingers, I ripped into the cooked flesh, ignoring when it burnt my fingers and mouth as I ate it. I felt good and full once I was done and sleep was creeping up on me. I was so tired that I didn't even worry about anyone finding me as I crawled into my sleeping bag. I fell asleep all most immediately. And dreamed.

* * *

**Author's Note:** So we've finally met up again with the guy from District Eleven. Told you, he would come back... eventually. The Poor Guy, I've had such a rough time naming him that he's had at least five different names before I settled on Garth - which was originally the name of Rude, Red-head, but I've changed his name to a name I think suits him a bit better.  
I'm almost ashamed to admit that I started writing this fanfic when I was still over in America, which was in September and I only just finished it a week or so ago 'hangs head'. I've been really, really busy with my course, you have no idea.  
On the different note and a question: The Banquet. How and what do you want to happen with it? Because I completely forgot about it until one of the guys in my class mention it and I had 'ah... what? Oh crap!' moment. So any ideas for what you would like to happen with the banquet would be appreciated. Not that I'm actually up to that bit, though 'hangs head and whispers' I've only just finished the second chapter of this Part. But Í am going to have a serious writing session and finish this thing. It's my baby and I want to finish and go yes, I have accomplished and successfully written a Hunger Games fanfic!

Anyway, bye for now, and I'll hopefully hear from you all soon.


	24. Chapter Twenty-Four

**Author's Note:** Hello all. Yes, I'm still alive. I've been... well, ok since it's Christmas I'll be honest, I've been procrastinating. I'm with my Dad who I haven't seen since September and simply haven't felt like writing. I open up Part 3 to write something, anything down and simply get stuck before I even begin, so I've been putting off writing because of that. But since it's Christmas Day here in Oz, I thought I'd give you all a Christmas present and presented you all with Chapter 24 which is quite light and fluffy compared to what I've been writing in previous chapters.  
So please enjoy and MERRY CHRISTMAS and Happy Holidays to you all. I'll try and update again before the end of this year.

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**Chapter Twenty-Four**

It was late and I was getting my grandmother her late night cup of tea when I heard a series of frantic knocking on our front door. This wasn't an unusual occurrence for us to have someone showing up at our door in the late hours of night. Many Victors or family members of fallen tributes come and visit Grandma at all hours of the day and night. It could have been any number of people to come calling but in my heart I knew who it was.

I set the kettle down by the stove, turning it off before leaving the kitchen, making for the front door.

My Grandmother, however, was already there, opening it and gesturing for the clearly worked up young man to come inside into the warmth of our home.

"They just don't get it Mags." The young man was muttering as he came into the front foyer, running a trembling hand threw his thick, bronze coloured hair.

I stood a little back, watching as the young man's face began to crumble, few tears escaping down his tanned bronze cheeks.

_Even like this, he is still beautiful, a bronze statue of a Sea God_, I thought before blushing furiously at the thought.

"I know they don't." I heard my grandmother say as she gently placed a reassuring hand onto the young man's trembling shoulders, "How can they? They weren't there, they don't know what it is like to be there and they never will."

"I don't know if I can ever go back there," I heard him whisper back weakly, his emerald eyes trained on the floor. My grandmother simply nodded at him sadly, while gesturing for me to go and pour the tea.

I nodded my head and scurried back to the kitchen taking down another mug from the shelf and setting it beside my grandmothers.

As I was pouring the tea into the mugs my grandmother and the boy came into the kitchen.

"Finnick," my grandmother said as the young man sat down heavily at our kitchen table, "I don't think you've met my granddaughter Annie before, have you?"

The young man, Finnick – but of course everyone in District Four, probably all of Panem, knew who he was, the youngest tribute to ever win the Hunger Games – shook his head but was now looking at me with interest instead of a vacant look.

I smiled shyly back at him and to my surprise – and delight – he smiled back. And from the look on his face I could tell that I wasn't only one surprised by the returned gesture.

Still feeling shy, but smiling all the while, I handed him the mug of tea which he took from me with another smile before drinking deeply from it.

"You can stay here tonight, if you like." my grandmother was saying as I handed her her mug of tea.

Finnick looked up from his mug of tea, relief obvious on his bronze face.

"Thank you Mags, thank you so, so much." He whispered. My grandmother simply smiled warmly back at him as she took a sip of her own tea.

"I'll ring your parents. Let them know where you're at while Annie shows you where you can stay tonight." Grandma said once they had finished their tea and Finnick looked close to falling asleep right there at our kitchen table. Not that I could fault him at all, it was late after all and I knew that if I was up for any longer than I already was, I would be asleep at the table.

"Thank you." He said again as he rose from the table, placing his mug carefully into the sink and gave it a quick rinse out. He did the same with my grandmother's mug.

"Show the way." He said to me, tiredness interlacing his voice and making it sound far thicker than how I had previously heard it.

I simply nodded and after a moment's thought, I took hold of his hand. His hand was huge in comparison to mine and it went stiff when I took hold of it before it relaxed once more and he allowed me to lead him out of the kitchen and to the stairs leading up to the first floor of our house.

"Is it," He started slowly as we walked up the stairs together, "is it just you and Mags?"

I smiled sadly up at him and nodded my head.

"Ever since my parents died, yes." I watched him wince and start to try and apologize.

"No, it's alright. I mean, yes, I do get sad about it from time to time, but I was real small when they passed away that I don't really remember them all that well. Plus, it's not like I'm lonely. I have Grandma and my cousins and aunts and uncles and we always have visits from the other Victors, so it's never lonely here." I was babbling. I knew that I was, I tended to babble when I was nervous, I couldn't help it.

This boy was after all a legend around District Four, ever since he returned from the 65th Hunger Games two weeks ago with my grandmother, who had acted as his Mentor during his game. Everyone in the district was in awe of him. And so was I, but I also couldn't help but be a little scared of him as well.

I had watched his game closely, even though usually, every other year, I had hidden in my room, waiting for the terrified, death filled screams to stop and for Grandma to return home to me.

I wasn't exactly sure why I had watch his game with such intensity, why I had cared so much for him to win because for him to win – even though at first that seemed unlikely due to his young age – he would have to kill all the other tributes. Which he did and very well too and I guessed that was the part of him that scared me so much.

How easily, once he had gotten his hands on his trident, it was for him to just kill his way to the top. He had won thanks to his trident, yes, but that was only because he had been using the skills that were taught to all of us from District Four from toddler years.

I wondered if that was how he had done it. Seemly looked at the other tributes and simply thought of them as large fish and that was how he had been able to kill them with such ease.

I couldn't help but shudder a little at the thought, but I still didn't let go of his hand as I led him to one of the guest bedrooms, opening the door and turning on the light before showing him inside.

The first thing he did when he entered the room was go straight for the window, opening it and breathing in deeply the salty sea air. It was several moments before he pulled his head back into the room, looking much better than he had previously as if the salty air had somehow refreshed him, returning some of his life to his young but damaged mind and body.

"Can I – can I leave this open?" He asked. He sounded so meek and looked so defenceless and childlike, so different from how he had always appeared on the television during the weeks of the Hunger Games, all cocky and confident, like no nothing or no one in all the world could possibly knock him down.

"Um, yes. I leave mine open all the time."

He looked relieved as he settle himself down on the bed but even though he appeared to be relaxed, I could see his muscles jumping at every sound or unexplained shadow that lazed its way against the floor or one of the walls.

"Can I get you anything else?" I asked. I didn't want to leave him, he still had a vulnerable look about him and I was afraid to leave him alone, but more than that I wanted to comfort him in some way, help him.

His lips quirked into a smile as he turned those brilliant green eyes of his onto me, looking me up and down.

"How old are you?" He asked instead, completely ignoring my question and catching me off guard.

"Pardon?"

"How old are you?" he repeated patiently.

"Twelve." I say simply, fighting down the bubble of fear that was forming in my belly, "I'm twelve."

He nodded his head, obviously understanding my fear where so many others didn't.

"You don't seem to be twelve. Thought you were older." I frowned at him, not sure whether or not he was making fun of me or not.

I was small for my age, but despite my small size, I was one of, if not the best, swimmer of my age group. I was fast on land too. But despite what many within our district thought, my grandmother was not training me for the Hunger Games.

No, she was simply training me for real life, since the way my parents had passed away was due to a boating accident and they had both drowned at sea. I guess that forced me to grow up a little faster than most of the other kids in the district. But with the Hunger Games looming over us for most of our lives, growing up fast is only to be expected.

"You look tired. You should probably go and head for bed." Finnick said gently, breaking me from my thoughts.

"Will you be alright?" I was worried that if I left him alone, without anyone with him, he might do something that he would later regret.

"I'll be fine," he insisted smiling but I could see that it was forced, "got to bed."

"Alright," I say slowly and carefully, "I hope you sleep well." I knew that he probably wouldn't, so did he, given the snort he made but he said nothing.

"Good night."

"Good night." He was starting to pull off his leather boots, dropping them neatly by the dresser. With another small smile, I left the room, closing the door but leaving it open just slightly, knowing from what little I had gathered on his personality so far that he didn't like to be enclosed in a too small a space, before padding lightly to my own room, just down the hall from his.

I had just finished getting ready for bed when an idea came to me. It was childish and I was expecting, as I padded quietly back up to his room, that he would shoot me down, gently of course, but it was an idea and I just hoped, that maybe, just maybe, it might just help him.

Hesitating for a brief moment outside his door, I knocked, loud enough for him to know I was there, but hopefully not loud enough to startle him and possibly cause him to panic.

"Um yes?" I heard his hesitant call from within the room.

I stuck my head around the door and saw him curled up on his side, the bedside lamp shining a soft glow around the room.

He sat up as I came, my hands clasped nervously behind my back.

"Uh, hello. Something wrong? " He asked clearly trying to sound calm and adult-like but I could also hear the worry in his tone.

I swallowed nervously before beginning to speak.

"My Grandmother gave me this to help me threw my parents death. It helped a lot, it kept my mind and hands busy and just helped me to cope with everything and I just thought that maybe it might help you too." I slowly brought out my hands from behind my back and showed him was I was holding.

"A piece of rope?" He frowned ever so slightly as he gently took the length of rope from me.

"To practice my knotting on." I explained, feeling embarrassed and worried that he wouldn't understand. "I spent hours knotting and unknotting it and," I shrugged my shoulders, feeling now silly and weak, "it helped. It helped me to relax and feel in control of things. It helped me to forget a little." As I spoke I watched him twist the rope around in his hands and after a few moments, a neat, complicated knot was formed with the rope. When it was complete I saw a tiny smile playing on his lips.

"You're not worried that I might try and hang myself or something." He teased me rather darkly. I nervously bit down on my bottom lip. Of course, I was slightly worried that he might think of doing something like that, but…

"It's not long enough for you to hang yourself. See," I took the piece of rope from him and quickly undid his knot and instead I created my very own noose.

"See," I said again, as I tried to pull the noose over my head, "not long enough."

He chuckled quietly as I did that before gently taking the noose from me and undoing it, instead created a series of little knots, that when completed would create one big, strong knot that she saw sometimes used on the sailing boats in the harbour.

I watched work the piece of rope for quite some time, watching him create the very basic of knots that all children in the district must know to more complicated knots, some that I had never seen before. But I didn't ask him where he had learnt them, guessing that a few were most likely learnt from his time in the Capital, training for his games.

It was a companionable silence as I watched him knot and unknot the rope. As tired as I was, I would have been happy to watch him knot that rope all night.

A little later, my grandmother came to check of Finnick, not seeming to be overly surprised to see me sitting quietly beside him as he knotted the piece of rope that she had given me all those years ago.

"Annie?" I jumped and from the larger movement of the bed, I guessed I wasn't the only one startled by my grandmother's sudden appearance.

"Time for bed, little one. You have school tomorrow." Grandma said and I fought back the desire to pull a face, but obviously my disgust over the prospect of going to school in the morning showed on my face because Finnick started to chuckle which quickly turned into laughter. He was laughing so hard that it took him several moments for him to calm himself down again. From looking at my grandmother face, I could see that the appearance of his laughter, a true laugh, has pleased her greatly and she shot me a warm and delighted smile.

I felt my cheeks heat up and ducked my head so that my hair now covered my warm albeit pleased face.

"Come, bed time. Finnick needs his sleep too." My grandmother said as she gently ushered me out of the room.

"Night Finnick." I said again as I waved goodnight to him. He looked up from the piece of rope I had given him and shot me a wide and magnificent grin

"Good Night Annie." His grin was so wide and so beautiful that I felt my cheeks heat up all over again, causing me to dart as fast as I could out of the room. I could still hear his laughter when I was safely inside my own room.

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**Author's Note:** See, quite light and fluffy compared to other chapters. And I have Finnick, what a good Christmas present!  
This chapter is actually made up from a one-shot - called Knots - I wrote way back, way before I started writing this and never really finished. I was stuck as to what I was going to with this chapter until I reread Knots and thought 'flashback' chapter and hence from that, this chapter was born. It's really just a filler chapter but I wanted to have some fluff (and Finnick) in this Part as it's going to obviously be the darkest and sadest of all three parts.  
Anyway, Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Reviews and ideas are much loved and appreciated!

_**MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL and HAPPY HOLIDAYS! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!**_


	25. Chapter Twenty-Five

**Author's Note:** Yes, I'm still alive.  
Sorry, I've started a new job and its been leaving me very tired and busy, so I haven't been doing much writing. Obviously, but I finished off this chapter, so I had better post it.

Hope you all enjoy and as you know reviews are much loved.

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**Chapter Twenty-Five**

I woke to the sound of Finnick's laughter still ringing in my ears and I felt an ache in my heart when I saw I was still in my little rocky cove and not safely tucked away in his arms.

It seems like a long time since I've had a dream that didn't include the sounds of screaming children, of blood and death.

It was a nice change and it was nice to dream of Finnick, even when the dream was about a time when he was still so lost and broken from his own games. It took a long time for him to become the person that he is now, to not react to things that reminded him even in the slightest about his own games.

I wondered if I survived my own games, would I survive reality as well as he and grandma do? Somehow, deep in my heart, I doubt it.

I ran my hand over my belly, feeling the swell of it and amazed that my child had managed to survive so long in this awful game.

I quickly cringed away from this thought. I would survive and so would my child.

I stayed tucked into my sleeping bag for quite some time, until mid-morning at least for I felt no need to get up.

I wasn't hungry yet and if I wanted I could always fish. I didn't need to go out and find any more wood, I had enough of it from all my gathering yesterday, so really I could simply stay where I was and there would be no consequences for doing so. I was quite comfortable staying put for the moment.

That is until the loneliness start to get to me, the quiet and lack of movement around me. I didn't realise how much I missed the sound of human voices and the movement of another human nearby.

I've never been a social person, but I have always had at least one person nearby me during all hours of the day and night. And now, nobody. At least that I know of. For all I know Jade might be climbing over the very rocks that protect this cove searching for me even now.

I cringe away from that unhappy thought even though my eyes instinctively start searching for any signs of movement against the rocks hanging over my head. None… I was almost disappointed… almost.

I wonder what Garth, the rude red-head and Willow were doing right now. Are they searching for food along the beach? Or still trying their luck at finding and trapping food in the woods?

A part of me wants to go and search for them, while the rest of me simply wants to stay put and try and survive these games on my own. I was feeling enough grief as it was from the last group I had been involved in; I didn't need or want to add anymore by trying to get myself involved in another.

But unbidden, worry for the others, Sera, Jep and Cole eat at my insides.

Had Jade killed them yet? No, I hadn't heard any cannons being fired. Not since… I shook my head, banishing that particular train of grief from my immediate thoughts.

I hoped that they remembered everything I had taught them on how to survive, what berries and plants were good to eat and which ones weren't. How to set up traps and so on to catch food.

When are you going to accept for you to survive, everyone else must die? An angry part of me growled and I sigh and shook my head, hoping to shake all thoughts of… everyone in these games from my head. Yes, it wouldn't do to keep thinking and worrying about them when I need them dead to live.

But did I even…

Stop! The angry part of me snarled and I again sigh and crawled out of my sleeping bag, knowing that the only way for me to clear my mind of all thoughts of the other tributes was to get myself busy and doing something, to start thinking about the task at hand so as to have no thoughts left for any of them.

It worked for a little while as I organised my little cove, unpacking my pack of things that I wouldn't need desperately the next time I had to leave my sanctuary and tucked them away into a small, shallow hole in the rock face that I was using as a shelf to store things into.

I tried to make the part of the cove that could be seen from above as clean and as boring as possible, to show no signs that someone might be inhabiting this little area and no tribute would feel the need to investigate further.

I was just starting to get bored – bored? Who would think one would get bored during the Hunger Games? Rather unbelievable really – when I heard somewhere nearby a childish squeal and a small splash.

Without a thought of who might be around and see me leaving my sanctuary I climbed up the rocks and took in my surroundings and sure enough, only a short distance away, I saw a pair of small arms waving above the water near a rocky path that went far out into the lake, with small cries for help accompanying them.

Hesitating though only for a moment I ran over the rocks in a half crouch in the direction of the cries and waving arms.

"Willow?" I called as I slipped into the water near where she struggling to keep her head above the lake's surface.

"Annie?" she choked back before her head went completely under the water. I dove down under the water after her, wrapping my arms around her tiny waist and pulled her to the surface and swam with her to the rocks.

"Willow," I said once I had her safely onto the rocks, "What happen? What are you doing here? Where are the others?"

"Fell in," she replied simply, "while trying to fish."

"Can you swim?" I asked. Her sheepish expression had me letting out a growl of frustration.

"So you came here, by yourself, to fish, even though you can't swim?! What were you thinking?"

"I'm hungry." Her reply was again simply but had me raking my hands through my greasy hair.

"But again, alone? Why didn't you bring anyone with you? I thought you were with Garth and rude, red-head."

"They're too busy fighting over what we should do next to come and actually do anything, so I came by myself."

"Willow," I exclaimed, "this is the Hunger Games! You don't just go wandering off by yourself!"

"You are." She reminded me, "you're by yourself and you seem to be just fine."

"Willow, it's completely different." I argued, "I know how to swim and fish and just how to survive by water. Plus I'm older than you,"

"Yeah, but you have Jade hunting you which means you shouldn't go wandering off without someone watching your back."

"I don't have anyone watching me back, plus I'm not wandering, I'm in the one place in this arena that I feel perfectly safe and comfortable in. You, are not." I say poking her thin, little chest with my finger, causing her to giggle softly.

"You could teach me."

"What?"

"You could teach me to swim and fish so that I would be comfortable and safe here." she said, her grey eyes turning wide and pleading.

I tried to ignore the look, turning my attention over head and towards the roaring waterfall on the other side of the lake.

"Please, Annie."

"Jade is hunting me." I sighed as I looked back her, "if you're with me, she'll kill you without a thought. As I said to the boys yesterday, it's not safe being around me."

"I don't care."

"You will care when you're dead." I snapped harshly back at her. Her grey eyes narrowed, defiance blazing like a grey fire.

"I won't because I'll be dead. I don't care."

"Alright, maybe you don't, but I do. I've spent enough time in these games watching people die, I don't," I looked away from her, "I can't watch anyone else die, not because of me. I can't, Willow. Please go back to the others. You'll be safer with them then you would ever be with me."

"But," Her voice was small and she sounded so young it broke my heart. "I want to stay with you."

"Why?" I asked her incredulously, "I'm, I mean, I was a Career. I did nothing to stop Jade from killing Ronan. You should hate me! Not wanting to join up and be allies with me."

"I don't hate you." She said softly, leaning her head against my shoulder.

I snorted.

"Well, that's means you're silly because you should."

"Nope, I can't and I won't. I don't blame you for Ronan's death and I know my family won't be and don't think he blames you either. If anything you helped him, you stopped Jade from making his final moments of life truly horrible." As she spoke I felt tears start to roll down my face and before I knew I was sobbing.

"Annie?" I felt her skinny arms wrap around me as I cried. "I'm sorry Annie. Did I make you cry? I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make you cry. Please stop crying Annie." After a while my sobs eased and I was able to calm myself down again.

"Are you sure you want to stick with me?" I asked, knowing that I was probably making all my Districts' Victors groan and feel exasperated at me yet again.

She grinned and nodded.

"What about the others?"

She shrugged.

"I was only really close to Garth and I think he knew that I was wanting to leave." She replied as we walked slowly and carefully back to shore.

"But…" I started before simply caving in. If Willow was so determined to stay with me, than fine, I just hoped she didn't die regretting this decision.

After a moments more hesitation, I lead her back to my little cove and inside the safety of its rocky walls, after I wrapped us both in blankets and had dried ourselves the best we could, I gave her her first ever fishing lesson.

She didn't catch anything, it's the wrong time of day to catch fish anyway, but after a few failed attempts at casting, she finally got the hang of it.

I'll need to make another fishing rod, I thought as I settled back against a rocky wall watching Willow practise casting, amused by her determined little face to get it just right, grinning widely when she does.

We don't talk about the games, what horrors we've both seen and have had inflicted upon us. We talk about our families, our homes. I tell her more about the ocean and she talks about the woods surrounding District Twelve. She talks about them in a hushed tone which confirms my suspicion that hunting or even being the woods is against the law, but I don't mention it and she doesn't bring it up.

I catch us fish for dinner, thankful that I had had the luck to catch as many as I did because Willow was ravenous and ate three fish all to herself. But again, I didn't comment on it and slipped her some of my fish when she wasn't looking.

I also didn't say a word when she curled up against me when she grew tired, asking in a shy voice to tell her a story about the ocean. I told her the story about a mermaid who fell in love with human man. It was a doomed love, but it was a story about strength, to strive for what you believe in, for what you wanted, to live your life and having control over your own destiny, your own death, that there was always another option, always.

When I finished the story Willow was fast asleep against my side. I ran my hand over her long, thick black hair, feeling warmth and comfort at having her here with me.

I didn't know what tomorrow would bring or even the next hour but for now, I was content. A strange feeling to feel to be sure, but it was how I felt, for now at least. But it was a feeling I would hold onto and pray that it would remain for a little while longer.

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**Author's Note:** So Annie and Willow have finally become allies. At last! Actually this wasn't how they were meant to join up originally, but as this thing got written, things changed and moved and so on. But it doesn't really matter, they're a team now and will be until the end... and that's all I'm saying. The only reason I'm saying this much is because I have a number of reviewer who have PM me that they don't want Willow to die until basically the last minutes of the Games (and only because she has to or Annie can't win, obviously.). And I'm fine with this because I don't want Will to die either, so don't worry, she will be around for a good many chapters still, don't worry. I just need to write them 'sigh'.  
Anyone got any ideas for what should happen at the feast/banquet? I actually forgot about during the intial planning of this fic so I never actually planned for it so I'm open to all ideas. The best idea or the idea that inspires me the most will be what I write, along with a huge thank you to the person who gave me the idea along with a sneak preview to the feast chapter. How does that sound?

Thanks for reading and please review. All ideas and/or suggestions are welcome!  
Bye for now!


	26. Chapter Twenty-Six

**Author's Note:** Two chapters in two days, Whooo! It's to make up for lack of chapters for the past couple of months. Anyway, I started writing this chapter up yesterday and finished today along with proof-reading it. Though if I have made any huge grammar and/or spelling mistakes, let me know and I'll fix it up, I just wanted to get this posted as I'll be too tired during the week to do so and you would have to wait until next weekend until this chapter was posted and we wouldn't want that now, would we, lol?  
It is only a quicky chapter but its going to help kept the ball rolling for what I want to now happen with the big Feast scene.  
Big, HUGE thank yous to both WendyHamelet and LilyLunaPotter142, both of them have given me some great starter ideas for how I'm going to write my Feast chapter up, so thank you very much both of you. You've both been life saviours!

Anyway, on with the chapter. I hope you all enjoy and reviews are much loved!

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

Having Willow as my ally made my life in the game far more… complicated? Interesting? Comforting? Frightening? Too many words for the far too many emotions that were swimming around my head and heart.

A part of me was screaming that I should never have agreed to become allies with her, that it was stupid and that it would only end badly. But don't all things end badly in these games?

Willow is oblivious to my conflict or if she does notice, she's very good at hiding it. She asks me to teach her how to swim almost as soon as we finish breakfast and as I can think of no reason as to deny her request, I do so.

We go out the small opening in my cove, onto the rock shelf that is for me waist deep under water in our small clothes.

Here I give her her first ever swimming lesson. I teach her how to keep herself afloat and how to dogpaddle. She laughs and grins as she tries to follow my example of how to float on your back in the water, only that she sinks every time she tries, splashing back to the surface giggling as she shakes her great mop of wet hair out of her face. I find myself laughing and grinning with her, taking the delight of being able to play around in water like I used back in District Four.

We're careful to keep our laughter quiet, though, as I told Willow before we started that sound travels over water and if we are too loud, someone might hears us.

She nods her head very seriously and during our lesson, tries very hard to keep her laughter and excitable cries as quiet as possible. But it's hard and we're soon splashing and swimming about with reckless abandon.

When we finally got out and started trying ourselves in my cove, do I start to worry about the consequences of our fun, but like the day before no one, no Jade, no mutts suddenly appeared snarling above us and we are free to enjoy ourselves.

Was this normal in the games? For tributes to go days with nothing happening to them? I mean, it's been hardly days, more like a day that nothing remarkably threatening has happened to me, but still, this peace and quiet is strange. I haven't heard any cannons, none since Merl… none since I left the others.

Maybe the Gamemakers wanted to have some downtime before they started pulling the strings for the final confrontation before the end of the Games.

Whatever it was, I was going to embrace this peace and quiet for as long as I possibly can because I know it won't last and I know that before the end, things will return to chaos and death will be breathing even more loudly down the back of my neck.

* * *

"We need to get more firewood." I say to Willow after lunch.

While we've been careful to only create a fire to cook our food, we had still gone through the pile that I had collected two days ago.

"Ok." Willow nodded and we started gathering together what we thought we might need for the trip outside our cove. We planned on gathering some herbs and roots while we were out searching for wood.

So with our lighten backpacks on our backs and our weapons strapped and tucked around our body's we headed out, Willow going first because she is far braver than I am and checked that the cost was clear.

Together we stayed low as we crossed the rocks and when we reached the beach we took turns to run across it, with me going first this time. I checked the immediate tree line for anyone, listening carefully for any hint that danger might be near before I waved Willow to come and join me.

I must say, going foraging Will was a much more enjoyable experience than it was say with Sera and Jep, if only because Will knows exactly what to look for, which branches will burn well and what plants do what.

Hopefully the twins will remember all that I taught them, but with Willow I don't have to worry about her accidently poisoning herself.

Maybe it is because I had Willow with me that I decided that we'd go further than I had gone into the forest when I was on my own. With the two of us we covered more ground and could gather more herbs, roots and wood. I didn't think anything of how far we were from the safety of our cove, that if distaste hit we were a long way from safety. As they say the benefit of hindsight is marvellous.

I was just bending down to pick some wild onion when I first smelt it. Smoke. Heavy and thick, making me chock as I breathed it in.

I looked around me wildly, horrified when I saw smoke snaking its way through the trees towards where I was kneeling.

"Willow?"

No reply and I started to panic when I found that she was nowhere to be seen. I was sure she had only been a few trees away from me only moments before, gathering mushrooms. Where had she gone? And why hadn't she told me that she was going to move out of range of sight? What had she been thinking?

"WILLOW!"

It was stupid to yell but the smoke was growing thicker by the moment and I could now feel the heat of the fire behind it. It was a big fire, I was sure of it, moving quickly through the forest's undergrowth.

"ANNIE!"

Willow was running towards me, her grey eyes wide with understandable terror and I quickly saw why. A fireball, looking almost like a miniature comet with a smoke trail, was hurtling in her direction at a terrifying speed.

"Willow, DROP!" I order, doing the exact same thing, lifting my head ever so slightly up from the undergrowth to watch as the fireball zoomed over where she lay on the forest floor. I winced and closed my eyes as I felt its heat as flew over my head before it crashed into a nearby tree, causing it to creak and fall from the large hole now in the middle of its trunk.

"RUN!"

We were on our feet and sprinting the way we had come in seconds, weaving and dodging fireballs and falling trees alike.

"ANNIE!"

My sprint slowed and when I looked behind me I saw that Willow had fallen well behind me, her short legs no match for mine that were used to running and had once it enjoyed it for fun.

Despite the fact that I know all of District Four was shrieking at me to leave her and keep running, I waited for Will to catch up with me before taking her rough little hand in mine and all but dragged her behind as I started sprinting again.'

She slowed me down considerably but we were least together and she was running faster with me than she would have if she was alone.

I could hear her gasping for air and sobbing against my back from both the smoke and her own fear but I kept on pushing forward.

I couldn't cry even though I am terrified, I couldn't be terrified or rather allow my terror to take control of me or I would become a statue, frozen with fire and the flames and smoke would consume us both.

Due to all the dodging and weaving we've had to do to avoid fireballs and falling trees we've been forced away from the route we took earlier and so are now running along the steep slope that I had fallen down days earlier when Jade was chasing me after she murdered Merle.

This part of the ridge is too steep and dangerous for us to try and climb or slide down, so we have to keep running along it, hoping to find some kind of relief, an ease to the slope that we can either climb or run down, but so far, nothing.

It was growing hard to breath; the smoke is so thick I am almost blind, though I can now see the fire burning its way through the trees towards us.

I never thought I'd think this, but I really wish Jade was around.

Dying by her hand was by far preferable to dying by burning. I knew that Willow and I would not be given the kindness of dying by smoke inhalation. The Capital will wish to see us die screaming as the raging fire bite into our flesh.

"ANNIE!"

Willow's scream breaks through my thoughts and I only just in time see the fireball hurtling towards us before it knocked both us clean off our feet and hurtling off the side of the ridge.

I couldn't scream as Willow's hand was ripped from mine.

I couldn't scream out in pain as I fell, hitting and rolling down the slope, bouncing of trees and rocks.

I couldn't scream when my head hit something hard and the world grew black with the final thing I saw was a huge tree falling down upon me, its bark glowing orange as the fire came swooping down to claim me.

What had I been thinking, just this morning? That things seemed to be peaceful and quiet in the games right now?

I should have touched wood when I thought that. I should have known it was too good to last long and that I should have expected something like this to happen. But I hadn't, I had been naïve in thinking that the peace and quiet might last for a little while longer.

Look where that kind of thinking has got me now.

I'm sorry Grandma.

I'm sorry Finnick.

I'm sorry baby. I'm so, so sorry.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yeah, yeah, don't you all hate me?  
I think this is one of my worst cliffhangers yet, though the ending of Part 2 was a pretty big cliffie, wasn't it? Though a couple of you did guess who it was who called out to Annie at the end of it. Question because I'm curious and I'm interested to read your thoughts; in this fanfic what have been the biggiest cliffhangers, twists and/or surprises for you as you've read this? Let me know because I'd love to hear and did any of you guess something and later discover you were right? Let me know.  
Thanks for reading and reviews are greatly loved!  
Bye for now!


	27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

**Author's Note:** Hi everyone. I was going to wait until at least Friday to post this chapter but I'm weak and what's the point of it sitting around on my thumbdrive when I've already spell/grammar check it half a dozen times. Typical that my writing bug bites me now that I'm working. Couldn't have bitten me while I was sitting at home, twiddling my thumbs wanting desperately to write and finish this fanfic, but nope, had to wait until I started working and then bite me during work hours. I don't want to admit that I caved into it, but that would be lying. But I will say this in my defence, I've only been writing during my lunch break and when I've finished all my other work.

Anyway, enough from, please enjoy and reviews are much loved!

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

I woke slowly, feeling completely and utterly rotten and woozy in the head.

My head spun as I slowly and carefully pushed myself up onto my elbows. Smoke was now hanging thickly in the air around me and I could feel the heat of the fire from somewhere behind me.

I struggled to move, to get up, to start running again but when I tried, searing pain shot up my right leg causing me to scream and causing my eyes to water even worse than they had been before.

I twisted around to see that the tree that I had seen falling towards me seconds before I had blacked out was lying beside me and that my right foot was caught underneath it, crushed between its trunk and the forest floor.

Oh no. Oh not good.

I looked over the trunk of the tree and saw that the fire was racing down the slope towards me.

Oh not good at all!

I tried to pull my foot free but only caused myself more pain and filling my lungs up with more smoke from my screams.

Out of the corner of my watering eye I saw something fast and orange shooting towards me and only just managed to drop myself to the ground as a fireball belted passed where I had been just sitting.

They weren't going to let me live past this. At least, they weren't going to make it easy.

I somehow managed to wiggle myself into a position where I could claw at the area around my trapped foot, digging fiercely at the dirt, trying to dig a hole deep enough that I could pull my foot free.

It was painful work, not only from the excruciating pain in my foot but also from the angle that I was having dig from which was awkward, my body twisted and hunch to get around to my foot while also trying to keep myself as small as possible so that I could be less of a target.

The smoke was growing ever thicker and the fireballs pelting towards me (some I barely ducked out of way of) were becoming more frequent and with greater accuracy.

I sobbed as I tried to pull my foot free but it was still wedge to deeply between the tree and forest floor.

Sobbing and coughing from the smoke, I tried again at digging my foot free, clawing even more desperately at the soil and bark but it was no good. My foot was stuck tight and unless I wanted to try and saw it off with my knife, I wasn't going anywhere.

I looked for maybe a moment at my knife at my hip before I shook the idea out of my head. It would take too much time, time that I did not have with the fire growing ever closer to me. Besides I'd mostly likely faint from blood lost and a general weak stomach before I even got half way through my upper ankle.

I know it's stupid and that it wouldn't help me in anyway and would only make me look weak in my final moments and that when I thought about my death I had wanted to appear strong and resolute for my Grandmother and Finnick's sake. I didn't want to spend my final moments alive crying, but here I was, in my final moments, crying.

The only thing I'm thankful for is that I haven't become hysterical yet. At the moment, I'm simply sitting beside the tree trunk, my foot still firmly trapped beneath, sobbing miserably as I watch the smoke and flames close in around me. I didn't want to go out screaming either, but that's how this was looking to play out.

I hugged my stomach, whispering muted apologies to my baby, cringing as the fires heat starts licked my skin.

I hunch down further, wanting to last out for as long as possible. I don't know why I bothered pulling my shirt up and over my mouth and nose. I don't know why I'm simply not accepting my fate.

It's strange because in some ways, I am as I'm not trying to dig myself free anymore and have said my apologies to my baby but in other ways I'm not. I'm not ready to die and that's why I'm hunching down to the ground, still trying to keep away from the flames. I'm not ready to die and that's why I pulled my shirt over the lower part of my face. A useless thing to do now, I know, but I can't just lie down and wait to die. I can't.

So keep on digging then! A voice in my head snarls, but I'm too weak from the smoke and the fall and from my previous effort of digging that I can't bring myself to start digging again.

So you are lying down and simply dying then! The voice snarls in disgust.

"I can't." I whisper, feeling more hot tears burning my cheeks.

Dig!

"I can't"

DIG! DIG! DIG!

"I can…"

"Annie?"

My head shot up and stared in disbelief as a small little figure came running towards me, her own shirt pulled up over her face like me and her think, black hair was hanging in a heavy, dirty mess around her face, but I could see her eyes, her beautiful grey eyes and I couldn't help but cry out her name in joy.

"Willow?"

"Annie, come on, we have to run, the fire…"

"My foot." I groaned, interrupting her.

I heard her suck in air through her shirt before she was beside me and digging with energy that I envied.

Well, don't just sit there and let her do all the work! DIG!

Groaning, I twisted myself around and helped Willow with digging my foot free. After a few moments with both our efforts I was able to pull it free, sobbing as I did so. Partially from relief, the rest from the pain that went from the tip of my toes right up to my hip.

With Willow's help I stood and only from her arm around my waist did I not fall down.

"We have to run." Willow whispered. She was right, we did, the fire was upon us, breathing down our necks but I wasn't sure if I could, not with my foot.

"Annie. Please." I looked down at her and saw her terror in face, her twelve year old face. No twelve year old should be facing this kind of terror. No child or adult should be facing this kind of terror.

I swallowed my fear and pain and caught hold of her hand, while I used my other hand to fish out my compass, trying to keep my balance as I sway on one foot.

"That way." I said and took a step to start running in that direction and almost fell, my eyes watering at the searing pain that shot up my leg as I took a step.

"Annie?"

"I'm ok. I'm ok."

Taking a deep breath and fighting back screams and tears of pain, I forced myself to move, first limping, then a limping walk and finally a limping run. I am nowhere near as fast as I had once been; in fact Willow was now running faster than me but was making herself run at my pace.

"You go." I say, trying to smile encouragingly at her, that it was alright for her to leave me but she shakes her head and stays glued to my side.

I don't know how we managed to get out of the burning forest and on to the beach or how we ever managed to get over the rocks to our cove, but we did, somehow. I don't really remember. The last thing I clearly remember before I fell unconscious was plunging my feet into the shoal water of the little pool inside our cove, gasping in relief as I did so before I blacked out again.

When I came to again, like the last time, I wished I hadn't.

My feet!

I gasped and sobbed as searing pain shot up both my legs from my feet. My right foot felt as if it had been hacked off with a sword, while my left foot or rather the bottom of it felt as if I had millions upon millions of little nails sticking into it.

"Annie?"

"Willow?"

Willow was crouching over me, her dark eyes wide with worry.

"Are you ok?" I whispered through parched, cracked lips.

She nodded her head very seriously before holding a water bottle to my lips for me to drink.

I winced as the cool liquid trickled down my sore, raw throat but I drank greedily despite the pain. Compared to my feet, my throat was nothing more than an irritating itch.

After I had drank my fill, so much so that I now needed to go empty my bladder but did I even dare to look towards my feet.

Like with most things that I dare myself into doing, I really wished I hadn't. Forcing back my nausea as I stare at my bloody and swollen feet, I decided to tackle the worst foot first, meaning my right one.

With knife in hand, because there was no way I'd be able to get my boot off otherwise, I started cutting the leather. I had only made a tiny cut in the leather and my hands were already shaking from the pain I felt every time I bumped my ankle.

"I'll do it." Willow said and before I could say a word, she's taken the knife from me, has me back on my back and carefully cradling my right foot in her lap.

I bite down hard upon my hand as she gently cuts and pulls the boot of my foot. With the final cut and pull I can taste blood in my mouth and I can see black spots above me. It's only Willow's harsh gasp that stops me from fainting and forcing myself to sit up and look.

Again, I wish I hadn't.

My right foot was a mess. Clearly broken in multiple, multiple places, it was a pretty painting of black, blue and purple colours, reminding me of the ocean during a truly awful storm. My right foot was a storm of many broken things.

I bit back a whimper as I took in the broken bones just barely concealed under my skin, just waiting for a chance to burst through.

"Bad." I whisper to myself, my head feeling dizzy again, "this is really, really bad."

My feet, my speed had been my one and only true ally. The one thing I had over everyone else and now… it was gone. My right foot mangled beyond the primitive care I could give it and my left?

Well, I wasn't entirely sure what was wrong with my left foot, the top of it looked fine but I could see from the tarp that Willow had obviously placed under my feet while I was out cold, to try and keep as much infection out of them as possible, had blood on it.

"What should we do?" Willow asked as she eyed my right foot with horror.

"Ah…" good question.

"Clean it."

"It'll hurt."

"Will, it already hurts." I say and I try to move towards the pool in our cove bitting back a sob when I pressed my left foot down.

"What's wrong with my left foot?" I ask when I give up trying to use my feet to move and simply used my elbows and butt to get me to the water's edge. I look away the water when it discoloured with my blood.

"Ah…" Willow starts.

"Will," I say looking at her because she's the safest and best thing to look at at this current moment in time, "just tell me."

"You've run it raw."

"What?"

"Because you hurt your right foot and your left foot had to take your weight and you've been doing so much running of late, you've run away the sole of your boot."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning," Willow sighed, "that after you ran the sole of your boot out, you were just running on the sole of your foot and you, well, ran it out as well."

"Bone?" I squeaked.

"No, but you've ran a good couple of inches off the soles of your feet."

I started to hyperventilate. I couldn't help it.

My feet, my speed had so far been the only thing that had saved me from certain death… without them I was no better than a fish caught in a net!

I was dead. I was so very, very dead.

I might not be breathing my last breaths yet, but it would only be a matter of time. If I couldn't run, than I might as well just start screaming out Jade's name now and get it over with.

You can still swim. A voice, Grandma's voice, said.

Fat lot of good that'd do me though, I thought back angrily, brushing angry tears from my eyes.

"We need to wrap your feet and try and set your foot." Willow was saying but I was beyond hearing, I had hit my pain tolerance and could no longer deal with it or reality and so I did the only sensible thing I could think of to do in this moment and that was to faint and so… I did.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Don't you hate me for doing this to Annie?  
I had planned to have her feet hurt from the beginning good injury (are there such things?) for her to have but now that I'm actually writing it I'm realising what a huge obstacle making your herione basically unable to walk. But I can't and won't change it now. I'll figure it out somehow.  
_Question:_ How many of you are curious to know what's happening with the other tributes? Like Jade, Jep, Sera, Cole, Garth and so on? I know when I was reading Hunger Games, I was always wondering what the other tributes were doing because as we all know the story is from Katniss POV so we only ever see the other tributes when she sees them. So my question is, is anyone interested in reading a serious of one-shots from all the different tributes POVs?  
If I have enough people interested, I'll write it up because I have basically all my tributes backstories in my head, just sitting there.  
Other wise, I'm thinking of moving on from this (Once this is finished of course) and writing up a Hobbit fanfic. Yes, I'm a huge LOTR fan, it's surprising I haven't written any fanfiction for this fantastic book series yet.  
Thanks all for reading, reviews and ideas welcomed and loved.  
Bye for now!


	28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

**Author's Note:** Yeah, I haven't been writing a work again... 'snort'  
But it's hard not to when I've done all my work and I have nothing else to do but wait for a job to be thrown my way. Granted I got my excerise today, pelting up and down stairs, checking what computer has what screen resolution... yes, this is one of the jobs I do, going around everyone in my work section and there's over forty of us I think, and asking what their computers screen resolution is. I never want to see the numbers 1280x1024 or 1680x1050 ever again... I'll probably be seeing them tomorrow, but what can you do? It's a good job and I like the people even though at the end of the day I feel stuffed.

Anyway, enough about me, you're not here to read about my whinging. Please enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think!

* * *

**C****hapter Twenty-Eight**

When I woke again it was dark and cold. My feet now felt numb, though there was definitely a dull ache in my right foot. It felt very stiff and even if I wanted to, not that I did, I doubted I would be able to move it.

I opened my eyes slowly, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness around me.

"Willow?" I whispered. My throat still felt raw from the smoke so my voice came out as rasps.

Still, she was by my side in moments and I could feel her trembling and wondered why she hadn't lit a fire if she was cold. It took another moment to realise that her trembling wasn't just to do with the cold of the night air.

"Someone?" I rasped.

"I don't know who." She whispered back, "but I saw them just after night fall."

"What were you…"

"I wanted to get us some more wood because we lost almost all that we gathered due to the fire."

"Willow," I tried to reprime her for leaving the safety of the cove but saw little point and I was too tired to get into an argument anyway.

"I didn't get us any," she continued, "I wasn't sure who it was and I didn't want to leave you while you were unconscious."

"Have they?"

"I haven't heard them and I've been listening out for them but last time I saw them, they were heading down the other end of the lake, so they might not come our way." I could hear the hope in her voice along with doubt. We both know that on the whim of the Gamemakers our unknown visitor could be forced to come back this way, over the rocks and stumble upon our cove.

I just prayed they'd be generous enough to not make that happen, for tonight at least.

"Still too risky to have a fire going, even to cook dinner, huh?" I sigh pulling the blankets that Willow had obviously wrapped around me while I was out to the world.

Willow nodded and I sigh again.

I was hungry and a nice hot meal was just the thing that would make me feel just that tiny bit better.

A sponsor gift would be nice right about now.

I looked hopefully up at the sky, but of course, no silver parachute floated down to me. I shouldn't expect one, not with how the day had gone. I hadn't done anything noteworthy enough to deserve a sponsor gift plus I was sure gifts were getting expensive now.

I remembered my previous gifts and cursed myself for not thinking of them before. I asked Willow to bring me my backpack and pulled out the small bottle of painkillers.

I took one and after a while I felt all aches and pains leave my body, I was also feeling sleepy again.

"Sleep Annie. I'll keep watch." Willow said as the sleepiness start take over my body. I wanted to protest and say that I would take my watch, to just wake me in a little while but my tongue was heavy and my eyes were closed before I could get even a word out.

I slept until dawn break. When I woke, my head was resting in Willow's lap. I could hear her soft breathing as she slept.

I sat up slowly, cautious of my feet and looked around me, at the walls of the cove and at the sky above.

All was quiet in the post-dawn light.

I settled Willow down in the blankets I had slept in last night, covering her before I started moving about on my knees. Not the most comfortable way of getting around, but with badly damaged feet there wasn't much more I could do and I was desperate.

After I had relieved myself in the pit I had created a few days earlier to a section of the cove that had a rock over hanging it, making it completely invisible to anyone and everyone. I had also searched this space of the cove for cameras. I had found none, but to add more privacy I had hung up a tarp from under the overhanging rock.

With more effort than it should have caused me, I crawled the rocks and peered out of my cove and looked around me.

I was breathing heavily and simply leant against the top rocks of my cove for several moments, relaxing and catching my breath, while also trying to think how I was going to get back down. Climbing with ones knees and having no feet to catch you should you slip was a real problem.

I slipped carefully back down into my cove, wincing as did so. I sat myself down by the pool, and with gritted teeth, looked over my feet, starting with my left one this time, as I never got that far last time.

Willow had cut the boot off my left foot when she had been caring for me yesterday and had wrapped my feet in white bandages, with thick padding on my soles that made me feel like I was stepping on mushrooms whenever I set my foot down. Not that I was doing much of that.

I carefully unwrapped my foot and tried not to throw up as I looked at my foot's sole.

The sole of my left foot was shredded, with strips of skin hanging from the raw, red flesh. Fresh blood started trickling down my sole as I tried to gently clean out the last bit of dirt that Willow had missed yesterday before I re-padded and bandaged it back up.

My right foot I didn't even touch, no way was I going anyway near that huge, bulky bandaged appendage that had once been a perfectly working foot.

I trusted Willow's healing skills enough that I had little to no wish to check her handiwork with my right foot. It was numb (for the moment) and felt stiff and secure, so why mess with it. I might check on it when it all but falling off but until then, it can stay the way it is.

I was just chomping on one of the roots that had managed to survive the fire yesterday (Willow had lost her backpack, but had managed to save one of her water bottles by thrusting it into her jacket pocket.) when I heard a strange sound echoing around the arena.

I frowned.

It sounded like a… Hovercraft. But I hadn't heard any cannons and this one sounded… larger than the ones I had heard previously.

Someone died nearby? But still, I had heard no cannons, so…

My curiosity got the better of me and I was once more crawling up and out of my cove, once more resting upon its rim as I took in the scenery around me carefully. What I saw made my mouth drop in disbelief, along with sending a large surge of fear through my heart.

A large hovercraft was flying over the burnt forest towards the lake, below it hanging from many strong cables was the golden Cornucopia.

What were they…

The hovercraft and it's golden cargo was now over the lake's sand shore, a fair distance from where my cove was but still too close for comfort. Why couldn't they have left the damn thing where it was? Why had they moved it? I had never heard of a Game were the Cornucopia was moved from its original place. So why change the rules now?

The cables were released from the Cornucopia and it dropped with a slight thud onto the sandy beach and the hovercraft flew away.

I continued to lean on the rocks and watch the Cornucopia for any signs of movement. But there is nothing and the early morning is once more silent. That is until the sound of trumpets erupts from all around. I hear below me, Willow let out a squeal in surprise and fright from the sudden and unexpected sound.

"Good morning tributes!" Claudius Templesmith greets us all loudly and enthusiastically, "Happy Hunger Games."

I roll my eyes as he continues on this ramble and slid back into my cove where Willow is looking at me nervously.

We both know what is coming, the offer for a feast. And sure enough, Claudius is enthusiastically inviting us to a feast, adding, "And for those of you haven't noticed yet but we've had a slight change of location. You will now find the Cornucopia by the lake now, so if you could all make your way there tomorrow morning, all of you will all be in for a pleasant surprise."

Oh, yes, I'm sure. I actually snort at his words, the surprise of how exactly you're going to die. Everyone knows that the feast is just a smaller version of the first day's Bloodbath. Only a true idiot or someone who actually stood some chance of survival would take it upon themselves to attend a feast.

Lucky for both Willow and I, neither of us are hungry, what with plenty of fish at our doorstep, though we would have to take extra care not to draw attention to ourselves for the feast will for sure bring out Jade and even though she would be hard pressed to actually find our cove, I didn't wish to give her any extra help.

"Now, now," I hear Claudius chiding someone, maybe me for my indifference and lack of interest in the feast, "Hold on. I can see there are some of you who wish to decline my invitation to this feast. But know this, this is no ordinary feast. For this feast will supply each of you with something you need, something you desperately need."

"What," I whisper to Willow, "New feet? I doubt it."

I grin as she giggles.

"Now, I know some of you doubt me," Alright, so that comment was probably most definitely directed at me, "But if you do decided to attend the feast, you will find something of great use to you inside a backpack with your district number on it, at the Cornucopia at dawn tomorrow. Think hard about refusing to show up. This may be your last chance in the final sprint to the end."

Oh yes, that so wasn't directed at me.

I couldn't help but actually glare up at the sky above me, my eyebrow raised, knowing my expression probably read, 'are you serious? Seriously'.

I would also like to see how they thought I would actually get to the Cornucopia. I couldn't walk and there was no way that I stupid and/or desperate enough to even try crawling there.

I crossed my arms around my chest and glared defiantly at the sky above me. It was all well and good to move the damn thing, but I still couldn't get there and I wasn't stupid enough to even try.

"I could."

I jumped at Willow's voice, suddenly aware that I had been speaking out loud.

"Could what?"

"I could go. Tomorrow, I could sneak out and grab our things and run back."

"No, you can't!" I cried.

"Why?" now she was the one glaring with defiance.

"Because… because… Willow, you just can't."

"They said that there will be something for everyone, meaning me too."

"I know but you know what the feast is. Why they have them, to draw us out and pit us against each other."

"I'm small and fast." She argued. "I'm not as fast as you but I'm still fast and I know how to swim so I have that advantage over the others." She went red as I raised my eyebrows at her 'knowing how to swim'. She could keep her head above the water and dogpaddle but that was about it.

Just might be enough, though, I sigh. Jade couldn't swim, nor could the rest of the Careers and I doubt that any of the remaining tributes could swim either. But there was still the small problem of the…

"What about the Kraken?" I ask because I knew that if a fight started on the beach it would disturb the great squid from wherever it was and it would come investigating.

Her face paled but she continued to glare at me with determination.

"If the Kraken comes, all the other tributes will be distracted by it and I can dart in, grab our stuff and be back here before they realised I was even there."

It was a huge risk she wanted to take, there was no certainty that the Kraken would come if a fight (which is inevitable) breaks out tomorrow morning and there was always the chance that she would get hurt and I wouldn't be able to help her due to my feet.

"Well, if you're going to go," I finally sigh after we've argued over this for at least a couple of hours, "only get your stuff, don't you dare try and nap anything that's meant for me, do you hear?"

"But…"

"No, Willow. You go for your own things, don't worry or think about anything but whatever is meant for you. Grab it and then get out of there."

She looked at me, chewing her bottom lip as she did so.

"You really don't want me to go, do you?"

"No, I don't." I grumble, "But I can't exactly stop you now, can I? Or," I pause, thinking, "I could, but it would probably just get us both killed."

"Like?"

"I don't know. Scream at you at the top my lungs to get back here, something along those lines. I could always tie you up." I add with a wicked grin and she backs away from me, a small smile of her own playing her lips.

"Why do you think they did it? Move the Cornucopia over here?"

"Hmmm, I have a few ideas, but none that I particularly like." I reply wincing as my feet started to ache again.

"Like?"

"Moving closer to here because they think I'll feel tempted to crawl out and take my chance at napping whatever they put out in the hopes it will be something for my feet." I shrug, "or they've put it there to draw out everyone who wants me dead and lure them in this direction somehow."

Willow looks worried for maybe a split second before she shrugs her scrawny shoulders. Damn, I had hoped to scare her off. I really didn't want her death on my conscious in my final moments of life.

"Only Jade really wants you dead." Willow says and I pull a face.

Isn't Jade bad enough? Besides, Jade wants everyone dead. And truthfully, everyone in this game wants everyone dead so that they can win and live. I tell Willow this but she shakes her head, unconvinced.

"I don't, Garth doesn't. And you don't, not really, or you would have let me die in the fire."

I open my mouth to argue, to point out that that was different, but as usual words fail me and I can see her point. The smart thing to do, a true survivalist thing to do, would have been to have left Willow in the burning forest to perish instead of doubling back for her, taking her hand and pulling her along with me. And the smart thing for her to have done was to have left me to die when she saw I was trapped underneath that tree.

She should have walked (ran) away, not stayed, risking death, to help me get free. I wouldn't have begrudged her if she had left me to burn, but she hadn't and so here we were.

"Yes, alright." I sigh heavily.

And together we tried to come up with a plan for her to safely sneak to and from the Cornucopia without being seen and harmed.

* * *

**Author's Note:** So, as you could tell, this is a filler chapter. And for those of you who are wondering why the hell I moved the Cornucopia, well the simply reason is; Annie has a broken foot. She isn't going to be walking over rocks, beach, through a forest and over a meadow to get the Cornucopia. She can't, it isn't possible, she doesn't have the adrenaline to get her there and back, she doesn't even really want to go to the feast. She is essentially in Peeta's situations with the Feast. Only she's actually in a lot better shape than he was. She just has a severely broken foot not a leg that is about to fall off any moment from blood poisoning... mind you, that still could happen to her, hmmm...  
But anyway, that's way I moved the Cornucopia to the beach, besides its a really different setting from Katniss's Feast. Speaking of which, I was writing my Feast today (at work) and what I've written up is so different from what I imagined, it just took a life of its own, like most of this fic, but it's quite different. I know a lot of you want Jade dead and that you want her to be killed at the Feast but that's too much like Katniss's Feast if you get what I mean. So Jade won't be dying at the Feast... But someone will be... And I leave you with that to chew over. I'd like to read (because I am a disturbed person) who you all think will die at the Feast or would like to die (now you will the disturbed person).

Here's the list of options;  
Jep  
Sera  
Cole  
Garth  
Rude, red headed boy (He's name is Dallas by the way. I'm not sure if that will ever be said in this fic because things have changed so much since when I originally planned it)  
Cisco (the only tribute you haven't met yet. Again not sure if he'll ever appear, 'pouts'. I like Cisco and I do hope I can write up his story one day)  
Titus  
And finally Willow (But she shouldn't be on this list because she isn't ready to die yet)


	29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

**Author's Note:** I'm so sorry for the wait on this chapter. Works been a little hectic so I haven't been writing as much as before.  
This chapter turned out very differently to how I started planning it and in some ways, I'm not entirely happy with it, but I'll live with it and hopefully all of you can too.

Please enjoy and reviews are much loved!

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Nine**

Not the easiest thing to plan, I might as well say up front. All our plans for her to sneak to the Cornucopia unseen all had flaws in them and left all too much up for chance.

The easiest and probably safest thing would be to swim over there, stay in the water until dawn and our things appeared in the Cornucopia's mouth, run for them, snag them and then pelt back into the lake and swim for safety. Only problem with this perfectly sound plan was that our best swimmer and runner was currently out of action.

"You said you think you could still swim, even with your feet how they are." Willow said as we ate some fish we had cooked up for lunch. While we were still reasonably wary about creating a fire while we knew there would be tributes nearby, we made sure the fire was small and made up of what little dry wood we had managed to bring back with us after the fire disaster. We put the fire out almost immediately after we had finished cooking our lunch.

"Yes, probably."

"Well, you could always swim me over and I run for our things at dawn, then we swim for safety before anyone knows what's what."

I chewed over this idea.

It would hurt to swim such a distance, hurt even more with me pulling someone along, not to mention tire me out quickly, two very dangerous things to be in deep, unknown water with a non-strong swimmer, but what other choice did we have?

Not go?

As much as I didn't want to "attend" the feast, I was also desperate to see what I had been left, hoping beyond hope that it would be something to help my poor feet.

I was trying not to think of the swim to and back from the Cornucopia with a broken foot. I have swum with a twisted ankle and broken toe before and that was painful enough.

I made a mental note to take half of my painkiller pills. Hopefully it would be enough to numb me to the pain while also not knocking me out cold. Last thing I needed was to fall unconscious during mid-swim.

I didn't much like our plan, too many flaws and if Cole or Jade was present with their spear or axes, it would be game over if I didn't get enough distance between us quick enough, but it was the best plan we could both think of.

I just hoped the Kraken felt like playing nicely as well.

I woke Willow up an hour or so before dawn. I had taken all precautions to make sure that I wouldn't fail in my part of this mission. I had taken half a pain pill to numb the pain in my feet, which I had wrapped and tied in tarp to try and keep the bandages dry. Before I woke her up I made myself go through the swimming exercises that I would usually do before any other normal swim.

This is just an early morning swim, I said to myself over and over again as I stretched my arms, rolling my shoulders, same as any other morning.

The lake's water was bitingly cold but I had swum in the ocean during winter so after a few moments my limps grew used to it. Willow however was already shaking with cold and she had only one foot in the water.

"Willow, we don't have to…" I say as I float carefully on my back, moving only my arms and trying to keep my feet as still as possible. The tarp that was tied around my ankles was working well in keeping them dry, but it stop the cold from getting to them, so for a few moments I had been frozen with pain before my feet once more became numb.

"No, we do, but," She looked longingly towards her coat and trousers (at the moment we were dressed only in our underclothes and the tight undershirt. When we came back (if we came back) we'd need warm or at least dry clothes to pull on to help fight off hyperthermia. Plus the fewer clothes we had on, the less drag there would be while we swam there and back.)

"Come on, let's get this over with." I say and coax her into the water, wincing as I watched her shivering grow worse. I tempted to tell her to simply jump in, to get it over and done with, but the splash would make too much noise.

When she was finally fully submerged into the water, I took her hand and we did a few practise laps, mainly to remind Willow's limbs of how they needed to move while in water. She was doing very well at keeping her head above water and her dogpaddle was pretty good for someone who only learnt to a day or so ago.

"Right, now do you think you can get to the shore?" I asked and even though she nodded her head enthusiastically, I knew she wasn't. She was a fast learner and already a good little swimmer but she could only dogpaddle and would be exhausted before we got even half way there.

"Take hold of my shoulder," I tell her, "but I need you to keep on paddling, ok?" She nodded and placed her hands on my shoulders. I was extremely grateful for how light Will already is, because even though water makes anyone light, I doubt I could have coped with swimming with anyone any heavier than her on my shoulders.

Taking a deep breath, I started to swimming. Even with the restriction I now had with my feet, I still moved smoothly through the water, my arm muscles remembering their strength and speed in water.

I fell quickly back into the dreamlike state that I fell into whenever I went swimming back home and all to soon we were at the a crop of rocks, only a few metres away from the Cornucopia. Willow slipped from my shoulders and gripping the rocks, moved closer for a better view of what we were facing.

"I don't see anyone." She relayed back to me.

"They might be hiding in the forest." I reply. She nods in agreement and we both fall silent. Dawn is now upon us, moving far more swiftly than any dawn had any right to, but I guess the Gamemakers have grown impatient and want the fun to begin.

I swallow nervously as I watch Willow move closer to the shore, crutching behind a rock, unseen to anyone in the forest but also left her blind to them too. It was my job to let her know if someone was coming.

We both held our breath as we saw a table covered with several different size backpacks appear in the mouth of the Cornucopia's mouth. I shoot another nervous look towards the forest, watching for any sign of movement.

There was none and with a heavy, frighten heart, I nodded for Willow to go.

She shot out from behind the rock like an octopus that has managed to escape a trap. She wasn't as fast as me at my full sprint but even so, the kid was quick on her feet. She moved in a zigzagging pattern so that if anyone had a spear, axe or bow it would harder for them to zone in on her with her jittering movements and speed.

She was at the table within moments, only for her pause, bouncing nervously on the balls of her feet. What was she doing?!

Finally, after what felt like an age, she finally grabbed two packs, one small, the other being quite large. She was sprinting back down the beach towards me when the first spear came hurtling towards her, missing by a breath.

Willow squealed and staggered sideways but continued running, splashing noisily into the lake. I swam quickly over to her and pulled her in behind some rocks just as Cole came into view from out of the forest.

He looked in bad shape. His left arm was hanging limply by his side and in the early morning sun I can see it glistening sickly, the flesh inflamed and red. Other parts of his body had been burnt also, but his arm was the worst.

Hopefully in his backpack, there would be some kind of cream to help him.

You really need to stop thinking like that, I think angrily but I really can't help it.

I hug Willow closer to me as we both watch Cole walk down the beach to pick up his spear, but he doesn't come any closer to the water, he doesn't even bother checking if we are hiding behind the rocks. He just picks up his spear and walks back towards the Cornucopia, ignoring our presence even though I knew that he must have seen Willow running for the water.

Maybe he remembers what happen last time he went into the lake, I thought, remembering our first encounter with the Kraken and how I had saved his life.

Which was a stupid thing to do, wasn't it? A voice that sounded a lot like Trout's snorted.

"We should go," I whisper to Willow softly, "before anyone else comes."

Willow nodded her head slowly, hugging our backpacks close to her chest.

This is too easy, I think as I start swimming slowly and carefully back towards our cove.

"COLE!"

Damn, thought as much.

I looked back towards the Cornucopia and saw Jade or at least someone who bore the vague resemblance of Jade came pelting down the beach towards Cole, her inflamed, burnt face twisted in a murderous rage, her axe raised high above her head.

Cole easily ducks away from her attack, causing her to stumble and her side to crash into the Cornucopia.

She snarled at him, teeth clearly gritted into a feral grin.

I couldn't help but wonder what had caused Jade to feel so murderously towards Cole. I mean, they had never been the best of friends, but they were still District Partners and District Partners, particularly Careers, rarely turned against each other until the very end. So what had happened since I left to cause this kind of hatred and rage between them?

It doesn't matter, my grandmother's voice said, speaking over my curiosity. It doesn't matter why they're fighting, what matters is you are wasting time and energy wondering why they're fighting instead of doing the smart thing and swimming back to your cove.

Taking heed of my smart, logical thought pattern, I started swimming back towards our cove again, trying to block out the screams and yells that were occurring from behind me.

We were just climbing out of the water into our cove when we heard the cannon fire for the first time since… well, the first time in a couple of days.

My mouth went dry. Which one of them had fallen.

"Nine." Willow says quietly from where she was wrapped in a blanket.

"Hmm?"

"There are nine of us left now."

"They'll be interviewing our families soon." I say wrapping myself into a blanket, not wanting to start thinking of dealing with my feet just yet.

Willow pulls a face before sighing, coming over to where I was and curling herself up against me. I comb my fingers through her hair like my grandmother used to do when I was younger and still did when I was upset.

I heard her give a sniff and hugged her closer, feeling her body start to tremble as she started to cry.

"I want to go home." She whispers, looking up at me with her bright grey eyes, tears rolling down her flushed cheeks.

"I know."

"Why are they doing this to us? Why can't they just let us be? Why…" I gently cover her mouth with my hand, giving my head a slight shake. Her eyes widen for a moment before they drooped in defeat, curling herself up closer to me and burying her face into my shoulder.

I waited until she had fallen into an exhausted sleep before I started looking over my feet. They were reasonably dry considering how long I spent in the water. Again I didn't touch my right foot but I did change the bandages of my left. It still looked as ugly and raw as it did before but at least it was no longer bleeding.

It was when I was looking over my feet that I remembered the backpacks. I left Will's one by her side while I sat on the opposite side of our rocky cove, soaking up the sunshine as I opened the backpack that had a large 'Four' stuck to it. It was large and surprisingly heavy. I was glad Will had been paddling along with me or else the weight of this pack along with her deadweight, would have drowned us both. No wonder the kid was so tired after having to swim across the lake with this thing on her back.

I opened it cautiously, unsure if the Gamemakers had felt incline to booby-trap it in some way. When nothing happened, I looked inside. I blinked and cocked my head to one side.

Boots?

Seriously?

These were the things I supposedly desperately needed? Boots?

They're more than boots, I heard Grandma sigh and with some resignation, I pulled the boots free of the pack.

To be fair, they weren't just boots. They were more than simply boots.

How heavy they were in the pack, they were surprisingly light to hold in my hands, they were made of a sturdy leather and rubber that only the very lucky and wealthy in District Four could afford to wear. But they were even more than that.

Looking inside of each of them I could see that they were padded and stiff, so even with my broken foot I would be able to walk around. Maybe not be able to run the way that I once had but I would be mobile again. And these boots would offer my broken foot the security and firmness it needed for the broken bones to set right.

Hesitating still because I knew that even though these boots were to help me, it would still hurt badly to get my feet into them.

I unlaced the boots fully, stretching their tongues as far back as I could and slide in my left foot into the left boot.

I winced as I settled it in and laced it back up but with the bandages and the padding, I could barely feel more than an irritating itch at the sole of my foot. An itch was far better than excruciating pain, so I would happily take it.

Now my right foot.

I bit down a groan as I carefully undid some of the bandages that were wrapped around my foot otherwise the damn thing won't fit in the boot. I bit back a sob as my foot started to throb from all my careless knocking of it. I can't stop the sob that escapes when I slide my foot into the boot.

I don't lace it up, can't bear to just yet, instead I simply lean back and take several deep breaths to try and calm my erratic breathing.

After a while, I finish tying the laces and simply sit there, testing the feel and weight of the boots on my feet.

They felt good, supportive without being too heavy. I twisted my feet carefully around, mindful of not doing anything that could hurt them before I start to think about trying to stand.

I grab hold of the wall and carefully, oh so carefully and slowly push my way up the rocky wall, biting my lip as did so. It hurt, yes, I mean, how could it not? But I wasn't falling down nor was I shaking or sobbing uncontrollably with pain.

I take a few small, cautious steps, biting on my tongue as I feel a small spike of pain shoot up my legs from my feet as I walk. But I could walk, yes, I'm limping and I doubt I could run anywhere fast, but I'm walking. And this is what makes me grin with pure and genuine happiness, even though I'm tired, hungry, in pain and still grieving for the lives that have been lost in these horrid games. I still remember how to smile a genuinely happy smile.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Has that got to be the most anti-climatic Feast you've ever read? It is for me, 'sighs'. I've read a couple and they had way more going on than my one here. I know that some of you wanted Annie to kill Jade during the Feast but I just felt that was too close to the book. I mean, yes Katniss isn't the one who actually kills Clove, but Clove still dies at the Feast and Jade is sort of my nod to both Clove and Cato and I want to keep her around til the end. But trust me, I have something very special planned for her, so don't worry, she'll have a good death... a good death? I am such a sad, twisted person 'hangs head'.  
Did you like the idea of Annie's boots? I needed to get up and walking somehow and this how I've done it, lol. I have no idea what's in Willow's backpack, so suggestions are very welcome.  
I don't know when Chapter Thirty - Wow, Chapter Thirty, who knew this fic would get this far, I certainly didn't - will be up, I'm juggling a few ideas for this last part and I need to sort out which ones I'm going to go with and which ones I'm not.  
Does anyone want some of the other Tributes (beside Jade, obviously) to appear again before the end? Anyone in particular? Let me know and I'll see what I can do.  
Thanks for reading,  
Bye for now!


End file.
